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I have done quite a bit of homework on this already, including speaking with both US travel experts and friends who live in the UK. It seems pre-pandemic, the BritRail Pass was the best option for unlimited train travel throughout England, Scotland and Wales AND the Eurail Pass did not include the UK. However, now the Eurail GLOBAL Pass appears to include the UK.  It is also hundreds of dollars less expensive than the BritRail Pass for the 15 or 22 days we are considering purchasing.

Our main objective for this trip is to visit as many universities as possible for our daughter to make decisions about where she plans to apply next year.  We know for sure we will be visiting several schools in London and other parts of England; Edinburgh and Dundee, possibly Aberdeen and Glasgow, Scotland; and for sure Dublin, Ireland.  Our return trip has a layover in Frankfurt, so I’m thinking the Eurail Global Pass is ideal for us since it includes all those places.

My questions are:

  1. Is there any reason we would NOT choose the Eurail Global Pass over the BritRail Pass for our trip in March 2022? Our understanding is MOST of the trains we will be on do not require reservations, so we can't see any reason why we should choose BritRail over Eurail Global for this trip. Just wondering if we're missing something because SO MANY sites and people keep saying "UK is not included with Eurail" but it seems they must not know about the Global Eurail pass???
  2. I’m having a hard time deciding whether to buy the consecutive 22 day pass or the 15 day flexible pass?  Will we regret not being able to use the train every day if we opt for the 15 day flex pass instead of a 22 day consecutive pass that covers the entire duration of our trip?  I believe our total trip is 19 days (provided we don’t get delayed along the way).

(Will attach screenshot showing comparison from one site where I compared the 22-day mobile passes for each - 1 adult, 1 youth)

TIA for any true insight from folks who have done this homework or live in the area and are more familiar than we are. Appreciate the help.

 

  1. @ThereGoTheVs 

    Eurail Covers quite a long time the UK
    In 2019 the RDG “Rail Delivery Group (call it the Union of Railcompanies in UK) said they wanna leave the Eurail Validity area because quite a lot used Eurail & Interrail (Eurail for Europeans) sRDG get less as the money is shared with all other Participating Railcompanies in Europe] over their own BritrailpassessRDGget´s all the profit]. But just after one day because of the actions and some online petitions RDG made a U-turn and said they wanna stay(I assume they arranged somehow with Eurail) . How ever one year later Eurail stoped to sell the 3days in a month pass and sell yet the more expensive 4days in a month pass as cheapeast one. Because RDG announced with many press releases they wanna leave the Eurail system and just published one where they say they gonna stay there is currently the big misunderstanding that Eurail doesn´t cover UK  anymore:/ 



    Just as side note quite a lot domestic traveler within the UK used the old Interrail Flexpass with 3days and always just domestic. They used the Day 1 as outbound day and Day3 as inbound day to travel just within the UK and didn´t used Day2 🙂 (And RDG still try to close this loophole)
    UK have one of the most expensive train fares in Europe.

    BBC Report about the leave

    BBC Report with the news they wanna stay

    Finally the answers on your questions
    1.
    There is no reason why you won´t use Eurail 🙂 Just not even if the trains are not Reservation compulsory you often can reserve and within the UK
    and it´s often for free i did it back in 2019 just with few Facebook message with the operating traincompanies 😃 quite a easy process.

    2. My personal opinion is to go for the Flexpass
    Because you are then not bounded on these 22days to see all universities you have then 2months to visit them. (Maybe one day more to get the vibe of the City or just to relax and maybe see some touristic things) 
    Maybe combine a 15days Flexpass (in 2months) with together with a 4days  Flexpaspass (in 1month)
    Or use for the left 4days cheap advance fares or buy then standard tickets for short cheap journey´s and use the 15days for the expensive journey´s


    Just about myself iam not related to Eurail and it´s just my opinion
    I worked few years as Tourguide with tourist that booked a Grouptourpackage (several operators) and we used quite a lot the Eurailpasses (non Europeans) and Interrailpasses (for Europeans) to get arround with them in Europe.

Hi, I was wondering, I’m planning on a trip in England. I’m about to buy a Interrail Global Pass Youth to do this trip : 

  • lille - london 
  • london - york 
  • york - scarborough (round trip)
  • york - cambridge 
  • cambridge - london 
  • london - brighton (round trip)
  • london - lille 

but I’m not sure if all the journey are possible with this pass. Do all the railway station mentioned are served ? 
so it will cost me 251€ if I take the 7 days within one month plus the seat reservation if I want ? Is that so ? 
 

thank you in advance 

 

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. THEY STEAL.

Hi, I was wondering, I’m planning on a trip in England. I’m about to buy a Interrail Global Pass Youth to do this trip : 

  • lille - london 
  • london - york 
  • york - scarborough (round trip)
  • york - cambridge 
  • cambridge - london 
  • london - brighton (round trip)
  • london - lille 

but I’m not sure if all the journey are possible with this pass. Do all the railway station mentioned are served ? 
so it will cost me 251€ if I take the 7 days within one month plus the seat reservation if I want ? Is that so ? 
 

thank you in advance 

 

All the journeys are easily doable in the UK and there are no reservation fees for any of these except Eurostar.

London - York regular services with LNER (2 hours)

York - Scarborough direct service with TransPennine express (2 hours each way every hour) or consider York - Scarborough then Hull then York - a bit longer but doable in a day (Northern Rail from Scarborough to Hull)

York - Cambridge probably via Peterborough or via London.

Cambridge - London direct service

London - Brighton direct and regular.

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