So, you’ve made the decision. You’re going to take the
train to another European country. What now?
Here are your options:
Get a travel agent to do it for you.
Use an online booking platform.
Do it yourself.
Whichever
option you choose, here are a few “golden rules”:
Plan
your entire journey before buying any tickets or seat reservations. For
example, sometimes, when planning, one finds that there are works on the
railway line, which means that you need to opt for a different route or times.
Plan
your journey from finish to start. This assumes that you know when you
need to be at your destination. The start time for your journey is then set by
how long a realistic rail journey takes.
Make
sure to plan realistic connections (this “golden rule” eliminates several
online booking tools – see below). Trains (especially in Germany) are often
delayed and sometimes quite substantially. As a “rule of thumb”, I recommend
minimum connection times of 1 hour for any connection that matters to you, 2
hours if a night train is involved and 3 hours for onward journeys with
Eurostar (This is to allow for “normal” delays as well as the 45–90-minute
check-in time). For example, on a journey from Hamburg to Brussels to catch the
Eurostar to London, it is far better to plan for a relaxed lunch in Cologne (2
hours) than a stressful connection. If you are on time: enjoy your lunch (Seat
61 has some great recommendations). If not: grab a sandwich and get on your
next train …
OK,
with these golden rules in mind, let’s take a look at the options for journey
planning.
Get a travel agent to do it for you
The best “travel agency” I have come across is not a
travel agency at all. It is a personal website originally started as a hobby by
“the Man in Seat 61.” Mark Smith’s favourite seat on the Eurostar from London
is seat 61, which he describes as “one of a cosy pair of seats facing each
other across a table” which “lines up with the window.” He is a railway
enthusiast who, early in his career, worked as a Station Manager in London, and
now runs “Seat 61” full time. His website is excellent, up-to-date and, without
doubt, the best place to go for advice about rail travel, not only in Europe,
but all over the world.
I have also heard great stuff about “Centralens resebutik i Kalmar (https://resebutik.se/). They have received more and better reviews than the other rail travel specialists, which I have found. The only reason that I haven’t used them myself is that I started with Seat 61, so I have never felt the need.
Unfortunately, some of the larger travel agencies (which are often procured by public authorities) are not specialists when it comes to rail travel. This is because flying is their focus and rail travel is a side activity. In my own experience, I have not (so far) received a realistic plan for a rail trip in Europe (i.e., one that would not leave me stuck at some station with a missed connection) from any of the travel agencies that have been procured by my own employer.
Fortunately, with rising interest for European rail travel, even for business, more rail travel specialists are emerging.
Fortunately, with rising interest for European rail
travel, more rail travel specialists are emerging, and (hopefully) employers will start using them …
Using
an online platform
A
“middle ground” between doing it all yourself and getting a travel agent to do
it for you is to use an online platform for journey planning and/or buying
tickets and/or making seat reservations.
There
are a growing number of platforms out there, which can be helpful for planning rail
travel from Sweden to other European countries. I tested the following online
platforms:
Of
them, I found Rail Europe and DB International most useful for
the following reasons:
Both
platforms can find routes from Sweden to a number of European destinations. can
find more routes from Sweden. However, DB International found more routes than
Rail Europe.
Both
platforms allows for “stopovers” for overnights and/or increasing connection
times. DB International also allows you to set a “minimum transfer time”.
Both
platforms sell “through tickets.” According to Rail Europe, these represent “a
single transport contract for successive railway services operated by one or
more railway providers”. This means that if you miss a connection, the railway provider
operating the delayed (or cancelled) train must “immediately” offer you “continuation
or re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to the final destination
at the earliest opportunity.” According to DB International, if you miss a
connection, you can “continue your journey on the same route or on a different
route at the next opportunity.”
Both
platforms allow Interrail passholders to make seat reservations (without buying
tickets) on some routes. Rail Europe allows Interrail passholders to purchase
“passholder seat reservations” (which are required on certain routes).
The
main advantage of Omio is that it finds more routes for rail journeys
from Sweden. However, for journeys involving multiple rail providers, Omio does
not sell “through tickets”. Instead, Omio clearly states that it sell “separate
tickets”, each constituting “a separate transport contract”. In their own words
“Connection is not guaranteed if any part of the journey is disrupted.” For
this reason, I do not recommend using Omio. To make matters worse, Omeo doesn
not allow “stopovers”. This means that longer rail journeys will involve nights
on trains (which are not always desirable for work trips) and that you can’t
increase connection times (which would be a good idea given that Omeo tends to
select unrealistically short ones …).
Trainplanet is also quite good at finding routes for rail
journeys from Sweden. It (very enthusiastically) informs you (correctly) that
Interrail is cheaper. However, Trainplanet is not equally clear concerning
journeys involving multiple rail providers. In their “small print”, Trainplanet
writes: “for delays or cancelled trains resulting in missed connections, we
recommend seeking assistance at the ticket office or travel centre at the
station”. This makes me suspect that they are selling separate transport contracts
(not “through tickets”). And Trainplanet seems not to allow “stopovers” either
…
Trainline seems unable to find routes for rail journeys from
Sweden. Also, hidden away in their “small print”, Trainline writes that the
tickets you buy from them “represent separate contracts with each of the
carriers that you are booked to travel with” and that “we cannot guarantee
onward travel if a service on the first leg of your journey is delayed or
cancelled, particularly where you are making a journey using multiple tickets
including non-flexible ones”. And, Trainline seems not to allow “stopovers”
either …
Trainplanet
and Trainline do refer to the “Agreement on Journey Continuation” (Read more on the Missed connections page.)
My
recommendation: For journey
planning (and for buying tickets and/or seat reservations), I recommend Rail
Europe or DB International. However, because neither site is all that good at
finding routes in Sweden, I recommend using SJ for journey planning as far as
Copenhagen, and Rail Europe or DB International, for the rest of your journey.
(Tip!
Even if you don’t buy tickets or seat reservations from an online platform, you
might still find them useful for journey planning.)
Do it yourself
This
can be a better option than using a travel agency and it is almost always a
better option than using an online platform. And once you get the hang of it,
it’s surprisingly easy. With a little patience and practise, one quickly learns
how to plan, buy tickets and seat reservations for comfortable rail journeys to
just about any European destination. Helping you get started is the purpose of
this book.
In
this book, I will specifically focus on rail journeys from Sweden to other
European countries. To plan any other European rail journeys, I recommend going
straight to the Man in Seat 61 (https://www.seat61.com/) and:
Select
the city where your journey starts.
Select
your destination.
You
will then be presented with one or more excellent options for your preferred
journey that actually work.
For
our example of Stockholm to Amsterdam, the Man in Seat 61 suggests two options:
Option
1 begins with SJ’s “Euronight” sleeper which usually departs from Stockholm at
17:34 and is scheduled to arrive in Hamburg Hbf at 06:00. Then, unlike
suggestions from online booking platforms, Seat 61 recommends continuing to
Amsterdam (via Osnabrück) at 08:45 (arriving there at 14:00). The 2 hour and
45-minute transfer might seem like a lot, but it’s not. The sleeper is
frequently (very) delayed, so a long transfer time makes for a less stressful
journey.
Option
2 begins with day trains from Stockholm to Hamburg Hbf (via Malmö and
Copenhagen). After an overnight in Hamburg, one continues to Amsterdam via
Osnabrück.
My
preference is Option 2 (I’ll explain why later on – see “Stockholm to
Hamburg” in “Suggested itineraries”.)
The
Man in Seat 61 not only explains where and how to buy tickets and make seat
reservations, but also displays an assortment of photos and videos of the
different trains you will be travelling on and the stations you will pass
through.
You
will also find lots helpful information about where to eat and where to stay
overnight at close to railway stations on your route.
My recommendation: In
addition to consulting with the Man in Seat 61, for rail journeys from Sweden
to other European countries, I recommend using SJ for planning how to get to
Copenhagen and DB International and/or Rail Europe for planning your onward
journey from there.
