They may have had a penchant for elitism, been heavy handed with their morality, and espoused conservative ideas about improvement, but the Victorians were right about one thing: rail travel was A Very Good Thing.

The Victorians would have had no truck with airports.  Supercilious security staff presiding over degrading searches and demanding removal of clothing?  I don’t think so...taking shoes off onboard flights and baring your ankles?  Ladies would be fainting at the very thought!  Wasting hours of valuable time by checking in early?  Not a bit of it! 

The devil makes work for idle hands too.

A popular travel option

Fifty years ago, the European Union (then called the Common Market), was celebrating its second birthday, dreaming of the day when people could travel freely across a continent still recovering from the ravages of war.

While the politicians dreamed, the railways of Western Europe acted. They combined to introduce a pass entitling visitors from the U.S. and other countries.
Eurail Passes began expanding eastward in 1990, when Hungary became the first country from the old Eastern Bloc to join; Czech Republic has just joined this year. As a result, one can now travel on a Eurail Global Pass from Lisbon all the way to Romania’s Black Sea coast. Or from the beaches of Sicily to the far reaches of Lappland.

As many of us will discover again over the summer period airports are a less than pleasant necessity that we suffer in order to take essential business and recreational trips.  This painful and often expensive experience normally begins with our commute from the city centre to the airport and continues with the incessant queuing and waiting, in some cases with the added indignity of a body or bag search. So if time is of the essence then what are we to do, with increased government security measures it is unlikely that airport protocol will ease in the coming years.

The main drive behind the expansion in this and other rail packages is the dire environmental costs of our continued reliance on aviation as a means of travel.

The biggest deciding factor for European business travel has always being getting to and from the meeting punctually with the minimum of fuss. Consequently for international appointments there has been no real challenge to the airlines’ grip on the market.

Rail travel makes perfect sense.  It stands head and shoulders above air travel as the most conscientious mode of transportation