Trains to Europe

[Ric.ror]

In order to reduce my carbon footprint - and I hate flying - I wondered if it would be possible to travel to european cities by train. I understand that soon I will be able to get on a train in Leeds and get off in Paris. Does anyone have any experience of train travel throughout europe or links to any info.

[mushroom25]

have a look at this:-

http://www.seat61.com/

[Buenchico]

Rail travel throughout Europe is generally simple, comfortable, easy and (often) cheap.

Any decent bookshop should be able to get hold of a copy of the Thomas Cook Rail Map of Europe (�8.99):
http://www.foyles.co.uk/foyles/display.asp?K=9 781841576770&sf_01=KEYWORD&st_01=thomas+cook+r ail+map+of+europe&x=0&y=0&m=2&dc=4
(That map is an essential tool if you're planning more than a small amount of European rail travel).

Almost all European railways have their own websites, where you can consult their timetables. However, the German railway, Deutsche Bahn, combines all of the timetables into a common database (in English). You can ask it to plan a rail journey from Scunthorpe to Stockholm without any worries:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

To pre-book European rail travel, you can use National Rail's official partner, Rail Europe:
http://www.raileurope.com/us/index.htm

That site is very useful if you want to purchase passes for unlimited travel in certain areas of Europe. However, for a simple single or return rail journey they charge a �10 booking fee on top of the fare. You can avoid this by purchasing your tickets, for rail travel in most European countries, from the UK offices of Deutsche Bahn:
http://www.bahn.co.uk/db_uk/view/index.shtml

Chris

[Andyvon]

Hi Ric,

My wife and I have just come back from a week in Paris on the Eurostar from Waterloo. Went to Brussels last year too. I can't recommend Eurostar enough really, especially if your area of the country is being linked soon.

The Eurostar is so much better than flying. You don't and far better than flying

[Andyvon]

Sorry - I hit the Submit button by mistake!

As I was saying...........

travelling by Eurostar is far better than the hassle of airports and being cramped into the tiny economy seats of planes. The whole journey from Buckinghamshire to Paris was quite relaxing and it was almost a pleasure to travel - unlike air travel nowadays. The train seats are comfortable and you can stretch your legs by walking through the train to the buffet car. The train itself is very quiet and smooth and its a real pleasure to travel on. It's also very cheap and our tickets were just 59 pounds return each!

I haven't really travelled anywhere else in Europe by train, except in the USSR years ago. The Soviet railways were good and certainly better than the UK at the time. European train travel in general certainly seems superb today. It's very comfortable and fairly cheap and I'm sure you won't have many compalints.

[jas1002]

Hi Ric,

I've traveled from the midlands through France to switzerland, around Switzerland and back up through luxemburg to brussels then back up to the midlands all on a train, It was all very smooth.