Information designed by Railfuture to promote the great rail secret that is Interrail (logo copyright Interrail)

Interrail is one of the great secrets of the railway, allowing people to travel by rail in, and across, around 30 European countries at substantially discounted rates, with global or one-country passes for between three days and one month. Originally intended just for young people it is now available for everyone to use, although the typical "Interrailer" is still under 25.

Railfuture has long expressed concern that too few people are aware of Interrail, especially in Britain where there is lack of publicity for it. As a result people often do not consider rail-based touring holidays, for example.

One might ask why Railfuture, which campaigns for a bigger and railway in Britain, cares about how well the railway is used abroad. Actually foreign rail travel helps the railway in Britain because people get into the habit of travelling by rail and increasing the number of passengers in other countries creates a thriving pan-European rail industry that can fund investment into research and development that generate economies of scale bring down the cost of the constructing and operating the railways everywhere.  There’s another, more obvious reason too.  People from elsewhere in Europe can use Interrail in Britain too (click here for details). An additional feature of Interrail is that people from Britain who are going to use Interrail on the Continent can use the ticket on Britain’s railway on the first and last day of their trip.

In July 2015 representatives from Railfuture met in Utrecht with the Interrail Product Manager  and other members of the Eurail Group, which is responsible for promoting and administering the Interrail ticket scheme for European residents and Eurail tickets for travellers from outside Europe.

Railfuture was told that Interrail has 500,000 customers per year. Surprisingly, in view of the lack of publicity, 23% of Interrail sales are from people based in the UK. The highest proportion of older people using Interrail are from Sweden and Norway. Customers of Eurail (the version of Interrail for people coming to Europe from other continents) are mostly over 26 and they are especially interested in visiting capitals. In 2015 for the first time Asia and Japan were a bigger market than North America.

Customers use the services of most national train operators plus WESTbahn and Thalys. Some operators, such as Italo, are not members but are Benefit Partners and give discount to Interrail passholders. Coverage is increasing with Interrail having introduced in 2015 the "Attica Pass" enabling users to hop on and off ferries between Italy and Greece; the first-class youth fare, and the family concept (one or two children up to age 11 travel for free with adults).

Although intended for people in a limited budget, Interrail may be useful to certain business travellers, and it can be the cheapest way to travel just to a specific place but still offer flexibility. The five-day pass is especially useful for the flexibility which it gives, for example on a trip with more than one meeting and three or four overnight stays. Interrail's flexibility allows "mixing and matching" with one or more legs of the journey possibly being by air or ferry.

Interrail has developed a route-planning app for all of Europe, with a map that shows those routes on which reservations may be.  Anyone in Europe can use the www.interrail.eu website to find information and book tickets. However, people first need to be made aware of the Interrail name, and that needs more publicity. The “Interrail Information - Inspiration and Prices" leaflet is distributed to some British train operators and there is also an A2-size poster "Travel with Interrail, connect with Europe!" However, Railfuture has not seen the leaflets or posters displayed at stations in Britain. It is not necessarily better elsewhere.  Railfuture has done some mystery shopping at main stations in Vienna, Ljubljana and Budapest. Not all staff knew about Interrail, and some staff gave conflicting information about the validity of Interrail tickets. Railfuture has suggested that staff training is needed.

The only way that Eurail Group knows where customers have travelled with Interrail is when they receive and analyse the diaries. Each selling agent receives a commission for each Interrail pass sold. Revenue sharing by operators, however, is based on travel behaviour, route prices submitted by members and the customer diaries. It is therefore very important that customers return their completed diaries. Eurail group act as a clearing house in to ensure that fares are distributed in the correct proportion to the different operators.

There is great potential for people of all ages to use Interrail. Railfuture intends to lobby for greater promotion of it.


InterRail PASSES CAN BE BOUGHT FROM THE FOLLOWING AGENTS (details at time of writing)

Railfuture has collated the following and does not endorse any organisation. Charges may apply.

DB BAHN
www.bahn.co.uk
Telephone 08718 80 80 66

VOYAGES-SNCF
(formerly Rail Europe)
www.voyages-sncf.com
Telephone 08448 48 58 48 or call at
Voyages sncf Travel Centre
193 Piccadilly, London W1J 9EU

FFESTINIOG TRAVEL
www.ffestiniogtravel.com
Telephone 01766 772 030 or write to
Ffestiniog Travel, Unit 6, Snowdonia Business Park,
Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd LL48 6LD

ETON TRAVEL
www.etontravel.com
Telephone 01753 671757
104-5 High Street, Eton, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 6AF

TRAINSEUROPE
www.trainseurope.co.uk
Telephone 0871 700 7722
• At E.M.Trains desk 1 • Station Approach,
St. Pancras Station March, Cambridgeshire
London NW1 • Leicester Station

INTERNATIONAL RAIL
www.Internationalrail.com
Telephone 0871 231 0790
P.O. Box 153, Alresford, Hants

RAIL CANTERBURY
www.rail-canterbury.co.uk
Telephone 01227 450 088
39 Palace Street, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2DZ

THE TRAVEL BUREAU
www.thetravelbureau.co.uk
Telephone 08448 156 212
High Street, Wombourne, Wolverhampton WY5 DN

THE TRAINLINE
www.thetrainline.com
Telephone 08712 441 545

For advice only contact:
The Man in Seat 61
www.seat61.com