Young people have been exploring Europe with Interrail tickets for decades. In the age of low-cost air travel, is ‘going Interrailing’ still what it was 40 years ago? — WERNER BAUM/dpa
A backpack, a tent, an Interrail ticket – that’s all Tom Steinbrecher needed for his summer holidays back in 1983.
Without making any reservations, the student took the night train from Hamburg in Germany to Paris, France. He pushed two seats together in an empty compartment and let the rattling of the train lull him to sleep.
He realised that travelling while getting a night’s free accommodation was a great idea, and so he kept it up: He spent the day exploring the French capital, and then spent the night on a slow-moving regional train to Bordeaux.
When it started raining on the Atlantic coast a few days later, the backpacker moved on – hopping on the next train that was going to the Mediterranean. This was all part of the great freedom to travel that he enjoyed back in his early 20s!
Discount for seniors
It’s almost 40 years later, and Steinbrecher is doing it all again. He has packed his backpack, although this time without camping equipment, and bought an Interrail ticket, albeit purely digital.
The pass is available with a 10% discount on the adult fare “for all young-at-heart Interrailers aged 60 and over”, as Germany’s Deutsche Bahn puts it on its website.
Young at heart ... The 61-year-old Steinbrecher felt that described him perfectly and clicked through the range of offers.
The transnational pass for one month that he had in mind was still available, but it costs €633 (RM3,141) even for senior citizens. Too much for what Steinbrecher had in mind: a rather short trip. First to Austria, then on to Italy – and back again within three weeks.
In fact, that kind of ticket was available: If he spreads his trip over four travel days, then he could get the cheapest category of the Interrail Global Pass, “4 days within 1 month”, which only cost €232 (RM1,151).
Pitfalls of going digital
But when it came to actually using the Interrail ticket, Steinbrecher felt a bit like a “digital immigrant” – and he struggled: To upload his ticket to the corresponding Rail Planner App on his mobile phone, he needed the help of his children, who, as digital natives, clearly had an easier time with it.
And later, he also had problems. During the first ticket check in the train, there was no WiFi, Steinbrecher recounts. The mobile ticket, which also works offline, was of little use when the conductor asked for a QR code. “I should have worked more intensively with the app before departure,” he realised.
Then he would probably have found out how to use it to reserve seats instead of booking them individually in advance with the railway companies and printing them out. A procedure he didn’t have to bother with 40 years ago.
European Sleeper night trains are also available for Interrail travellers. — ZACHARIE SCHEURER/dpa
Those who went interrailing in the early days still rave about the great freedom and flexibility they enjoyed. They are well aware that this is long gone. Night trains, for example, now always require a reservation. Many have been removed from the timetable altogether.
Why spend the night in a rumbling carriage when the TGV high-speed train only takes two hours to travel from Paris to Bordeaux?
But such speed also has its price: a seat reservation is mandatory on the TGV and can cost up to €20 (RM100) per journey if demand is high.
The more in demand a connection is, the lower the chances of getting on with an Interrail ticket. To and from France, there are sometimes quotas for Interrail ticket holders. Surcharges also apply in Spain and Italy.
For those planning on Interrailing, this means – book early, plan for extra charges and familiarise yourself with the complicated reservations system.
”It’s annoying,” says Wolfgang Strasdas, a pensioner who goes Interrailing and is professionally a professor of sustainable tourism. He used a specialised travel agency to book connections through France and Spain.
“But that makes it more expensive,” says Strasdas, 65. The seat quotas for Interrail ticket holders could lead to them being left behind on the way to London, for example, even though there are still seats available on the Eurostar train.
Interrail of the past
Overall, however, Strasdas emphasises the advantages of the offer: ”The big advantage is that I can browse different rail companies and their connections on one portal and use them with one ticket.”
As a teenager, Strasdas travelled as far as Morocco with the Interrail pass. It took him 60 hours and a thick book of railway timetables, which he used to pick out the best connections. Today, you could make the journey in half the time, the comfort would be higher, the timetable virtual – only Morocco is no longer included in the Interrail Pass.
Instead, the countries of Eastern Europe have been added, and between Istanbul in Turkiye and Bulgaria you can still experience the Interrail feeling of the past, says Strasdas.
”Travelling takes time, the landscape changes, and in contrast to air travel, you experience this on the train,” says the expert for sustainable tourism, who promotes “climate protection on medium-haul routes.” – dpa
Head down to Germany’s majestic landscape around the Elbe river and then on top Prague. And then? Keep going! It’s all possible with Interrail. — GREGOR FISCHER/dpa
