New high-speed continental rail providers beginning subsequent Sunday will make extra European cities faster to succeed in by practice from the UK.
On December 13, Thalys trains – a joint operation by the French, Belgians and Germans – will start operating at as much as 186mph on traces between Brussels and Amsterdam and Brussels and Cologne.
Straightforward attain: A high-speed Thalys practice crosses the Rhine leaving Cologne cathedral in its wake
Journey instances to Amsterdam will likely be lower by almost an hour, and to Cologne by half an hour. Mixed with a Eurostar practice to Brussels, will probably be doable to succeed in both metropolis from London in as little as four-and-a-quarter hours.
In Brussels, you want solely change platforms. Thalys interiors look slick, and tickets for the Eurostar-plus-Thalys journey might be purchased in a single transaction with Eurostar or Rail Europe.
So in the event you fancy a few days exploring Amsterdam’s canals, or pottering round Cologne’s Christmas markets, taking the practice appears interesting.
Must you reside inside straightforward attain of Eurostar’s departure factors in London or Kent, as soon as you’ve got factored within the longer check-in required for flying and getting from the airport to metropolis centre, door-to-door instances are most likely much like flying. The practice journey can be more likely to be far more stress-free and fewer dangerous to the surroundings.
Fares are affordable, too. Rail Europe says travelling Eurostar/ Thalys prices from £105 return London-Amsterdam and £94 return London-Cologne, booked on www. raileurope.co.uk.
However word that phrase ‘from’. Getting these lead-in fares might be mighty difficult. Spontaneity isn’t really helpful: the most affordable fares I may discover final week for travelling on December 15 to 17 had been £242 return to Amsterdam and £139 return to Cologne. On the identical dates, I may have booked flights with easy-Jet for £65 return Luton to Amsterdam and £71 return Gatwick to Cologne.
Amanda Monroe, of Rail Europe, says: ‘It’s essential to ebook effectively forward to get the bottom fares on high-speed providers to the Continent.’ The primary dates she may give you when the lead-in fares had been accessible had been in mid-January.
It is price noting that it’s unattainable to seek out out for your self when least expensive fares can be found on the Rail Europe web site, besides by laborious trial and error. On airline web sites, equivalent to www.easyjet.com, you may see at a look when journey is least expensive. (For mid-January, easyJet’s fares had been £50 return to Amsterdam and £44 return to Cologne –less than half the practice fares.)
One other frustration with European rail journey is you could’t ebook as far forward as you would possibly like. For Thalys, as with most high-speed European practice providers, the reserving horizon is 90 days. With easyJet I can at the moment ebook a flight to Amsterdam, or Good or wherever, as much as the tip of September 2010, making it a lot simpler to plan, ebook lodging –and bag low-cost fares.
An extra complication is that totally different practice operators have totally different reserving horizons. So whereas it is 90 days for a lot of the high-speed European trains, with Eurostar it is often 120 days.
Nonetheless, if you wish to purchase a ticket from Eurostar combining its service with a UK practice, you’re allowed to ebook solely 84 days upfront.
Travelling by rail into Europe is in some ways an more and more tempting various to flying. However many extra of us would faucet into Europe’s rising high-speed practice community had been it not for off-putting advance reserving restrictions and the truth that fares are sometimes uncompetitive with the airways.
On December 15, Eurostar is placing up its least expensive fares by £10, growing a regular return from London to Lille from £55 to £65 and from London to Paris, Disneyland Paris and Brussels from £59 to £69. The 15 per cent improve appears rather a lot, however to be honest it’s the first value rise on Eurostar’s least expensive fares since 2003. Most different costlier customary returns are additionally growing by £10.
‘Enterprise site visitors is down and we’re having to make up the shortfall,’ says Eurostar. So get monetary savings by reserving a Eurostar journey – in addition to a Eurostar/ European practice mixture – within the subsequent 9 days.
Be aware that the lead-in fares to Amsterdam and Cologne given above are primarily based on bookings made earlier than December 15; add £10 for bookings after then.
French Motorail won’t be round subsequent yr, and fairly presumably by no means once more. The in a single day trains had been carrying automobiles and passengers from Calais to southern France in the summertime months for 20 years, however Rail Europe lately introduced that ‘the service can’t be operated on a financially viable foundation’ in 2010.
No choice has been made on its long-term future, however I would not guess on a comeback. Some will see it as no nice loss. ‘The service had ended up being fairly fundamental and in want of funding,’ says practice skilled Mark Smith. ‘The couchettes wanted refurbishing and there was no restaurant automotive – you had been suggested to deliver a picnic.’
There are alternate options, probably the most handy being the AutoSlaap Trein (Dutch motorail). Its trains go away from ‘s-Hertogenbosch –around three hours’ drive from Calais, however nearer to Rotterdam and Hook of Holland.
They go to the South of France (to Avignon June-September and Frejus in July and August), in addition to to Italy. The Dutch service, says Mark, is miles higher than French Motorail – you get a welcome drink, and there is a restaurant automotive serving good meals.
Booked via Railsavers, the UK agent for Dutch motorail, fares within the faculty summer season holidays begin at £1,149 return to Avignon for the automotive and a couchette sleeping as much as six.
Eurostar (0870 518 6186, www.eurostar.com)
Rail Europe (0844 848 4064, www.raileurope.co.uk)
Railsavers (0845 293 2715, www.railsavers.com)
Thalys www.thalys.com
• There may be exhaustive and invaluable info on find out how to get the most affordable European rail fares at www.seat61.com
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