European rail passes for 2006: New options, new pricing policy

Heading to Europe this summer? If so, you may well be considering some form of rail pass. This year, you'll find more options than ever—and a profusion of prices to go with them. Here are some of the more important developments you should know.

New two-country passes

This year, the Eurail system offers two-country passes for 16 combinations of adjacent countries or country groups: Austria-Czech, Austria-Germany, Austria-Slovenia/Croatia, Austria-Switzerland, Benelux-France, Benelux-Germany, Denmark-Germany, France-Germany, France-Italy, France-Spain, France-Switzerland, Germany-Switzerland, Greece-Italy, Hungary-Romania, Hungary-Slovenia/Croatia, and Portugal-Spain.

All except Portugal-Spain passes provide three basic options: adult, adult/saver (for groups of two to five traveling together; limits on group size vary), and youth; Portugal-Spain doesn't do youth.

Most start with four days of travel within a two-month period and add extra days on a per-day charge, a few start at five days of travel, and Portugal-Spain starts at three days.

Austria-Germany, Benelux-France, Benelux-Germany, Denmark-Germany, France-Germany, France-Italy, France-Spain, and Greece-Italy offer both first- and second-class options to adults; the others limit adult passes to first class. All offer second-class-only for youth under 26 years of age.

Lower prices for smaller areas

With European rail passes, the less the geography covered, the lower the cost. If you confine your excursions to one country, you'll pay less than with a two-country pass. One-country passes are available for Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Also, BritRail offers a long list of passes for the U.K. and Ireland. Most one-country passes for the larger countries offer both first- and second-class options for adults; most offer regular, adult/saver, and second-class youth options.

Eurail "Selectpasses" are available for any group of three, four, or five of the 22 participating countries that border each other (and "border" includes connection by ferry even though some of the countries don't actually share a land border). Eurail Selectpasses are available in adult first class, adult/saver first class, and second-class youth versions.

Other multi-country regional passes cover the Balkans (Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, and Serbia and Montenegro), Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg), Europe East (Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia), and Scandinavia (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden). And you can still buy the expensive 18-country Eurail pass.

Important trains missing

Rail passes do not cover some of the continent's most important high-speed trains. You have to buy a separate ticket and pay extra for each trip on Eurostar, Thalys, several Spanish high-speed trains, and several cross-border TGVs, although passholders are entitled to discounts. However, rail passes do include the single-country high-speed trains in France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden (but you may have to pay extra for seat reservations).

Individual tickets

If you plan relatively few inter-city train trips, you may well be better off buying individual tickets rather than a rail pass. Also, you should buy individual tickets for short trips—especially to or from an airport—rather than waste an expensive day of pass validity on a cheap trip. The major U.S. agencies that sell rail passes also sell individual tickets (and arrange seat reservations); they've generally upgraded their websites to handle individual tickets easily.

Euro pricing

This year, all European rail systems except those in Switzerland and the U.K. are establishing prices for their U.S. agencies in euros rather than as fixed dollar rates. Those U.S. agencies, in turn, are establishing their own dollar prices. That means U.S. prices are no longer fixed for the year but instead may change if the dollar/euro exchange changes. It also means that different U.S. agencies may set somewhat different retail prices.

I apologize for trying to cover such a complex topic in one short column. Obviously, each trip is unique, and you have to research prices, features, and options that best suit your individual itinerary. And this year, you almost have to do it online: Rail Europe stopped publishing its traditional slick, detailed brochure. The best sites to start with are RailEurope.com, RailConnection.com, Eurail.com, and BritRail.net.