Britain to pull out of Interrail

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Britain is to end its membership of Interrail after more than 45 years, leading to concerns that overseas visitors to the UK will be deterred from travelling to cities beyond London.

Eurostar tickets will still be included in Interrail, but from January next year no other UK train services will be included in the European rail pass.~Overseas visitors with Interrail tickets will have to also buy a separate BritRail pass or individual train tickets if they want to travel beyond the capital.

UK holidaymakers who want to travel by rail around Europe will still be able to buy Interrail passes, but they will have to pay extra to travel to London to pick up the Eurostar service, or fly to Europe instead.

UK train companies have been members of Interrail – a pan-European rail ticket available to residents of the EU – since 1973, but they only joined Eurail, a separate pass for non-EU residents, on a trial basis last year.

Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents UK rail operators, said it had been pushed out of Interrail because it no longer wished to continue with its membership of Eurail.

Both schemes are managed by the Dutch Eurail group, which is planning to merge them into one single ticket. RDG said this would conflict with its BritRail pass, which also offers discounts on local attractions.

Some users took to social media to warn that the UK pulling out of Interrail would lead to fewer international visitors venturing beyond London.

Mark Smith, who runs the popular train travel blog Seat61, wrote: “Brits will still be able to buy and use InterRail passes, but only starting in London, no UK travel covered. Inbound visitors will be discouraged from venturing beyond London as that will cost extra.”

Trips around Northern Ireland will continue to be covered by InterRail as the country has a separate agreement, but UK rail journeys to Northern Ireland will cost extra.

RDG regional director Robert Nisbet said: “The rail industry boosts British tourism and, working together, rail companies are offering the best option for tourists with BritRail, which is recommended by Visit Britain.”

Eurail said that all Interrail and Eurail passes purchased before 31 December 2019 would be valid for travelling on UK trains until the end of their validity period.

General manager Carlo Boselli said: “I deeply regret that RDG’s priority to secure a competitive position for their BritRail pass has let them to pull out of Interrail and Eurail.

“Over the past few months, we have done everything within our reach persuade RDG to remain within both Passes, but unfortunately we have been unable to reach an agreement yet.”

“As a consequence of RDG not being part of Eurail and Interrail, travellers who buy a Eurail or Interrail Global Pass in 2020 will no longer be able to travel in Great Britain.”

RDG said that it wanted to work with Eurail Group to develop an offer for tourists who want to buy the Eurail and Britrail passes together.

In a statement, VisitBritain said: "We are fully supportive of the Britrail pass which offers great flexibility and value to inbound visitors, discounts at 200 locations around Britain and can be stored on a mobile phone.

“It is a great offer to our international visitors and encourages them to explore the nations and regions of Britain. Inbound visitors will still be able to buy the single Eurail pass until the end of the year which can be used for as long as the ticket is valid.

“After that inbound visitors can travel on Eurostar and then explore Britain on a Britrail pass or buy journey specific tickets."