Cast back to just 18 months ago, and the departure boards at Thessaloniki railway station were rather interesting. The city boasted direct train services to ten different European countries. In those days, one could hop aboard a train in Thessaloniki and travel, without once having to change trains, to distant Prague and even-further-distant Moscow. No » Read more

Back in fall 2010, we highlighted some of the key missing links in Europe’s rail network. These are those frustrating gaps, where even the most dedicated rail traveller must switch to a bus: Poprad (Slovakia) to Zakopane (Poland), or the hop south from Narvik in Norway to reach the rail route south to Trondheim at » Read more

Travel is all about surprises, about serendipitous discoveries and transcending expectations. And, yes, we’ve been surprised in 2011. We were startled to move so quickly from serene and sunny spring back to deep midwinter when in March we traveled by train from the shores of the North Italian lakes to eastern Switzerland. The little train » Read more

Eurostar’s flagship services linking London’s magnificent St Pancras station with Paris and Brussels have been an overwhelming success, transforming London’s relationship with two close continental capitals. So much well-justified praise is heaped on Eurostar’s capital city links that it is easy to overlook that the rail service through the Channel Tunnel is good for more » Read more

By Tom Meyers— A few months ago I had to make a key decision while planning a trip from Paris to Berlin. Plane or train? I could take a €50 budget flight on easyJet and be there in about two hours. Or I could take the TGV to Germany, and then board an ICE train » Read more

London’s St Pancras station is the grandest terminus in a city that is full of wonderful railway stations. It is a place to linger. For 140 years, this spectacular station has been the jumping-off point for travelers bound for the East Midlands and Yorkshire. Wider horizons Four years ago this week, St Pancras found new » Read more

Europe’s new rail schedules come into effect on Sunday December 11, 2011. And these new schedules will, for the most part, apply through December 2012. The latest monthly edition (dated December 2011) of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable has just landed on our desks, and we’ve been taking a peek at what rail travelers » Read more

Rail travelers through Germany who have no great aptitude for languages usually manage to pick up the bare essentials after a few days. Among those essentials is the marvelously Germanic compound tongue-twister Schienenersatzverkehr (“SEV” for short). It’s not a word you’ll want to use a lot. And it’s not a word you’ll want to hear too » Read more

Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries, editors of the book Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide for Independent Travellers, explain how new high-speed rail services are transforming the relations between capitals and the provinces in France, Sweden and Turkey. Turkish delight In the Turkish city of Konya, the acronym “YHK” has been much talked about this » Read more