Sunsetting our Trip Planner

I can also recommend these resources for planning a trip.

• The Interail/ Eurail Map (mentioned in the Planning Guide too, but worth pointing out) specifically.
• Interrail’s own Trip ideas - use these as a base if you’re short of inspiration
• Two night train maps (a bit out of date, unfortunately, but a great overview) Nachtzugkarte and Back on Track. A day of travel, followed by a night train, is a really good use of a travel day 😀
• Seat61’s guide to Interrail or Eurail passes, and a very compehensive guide to reservations (how much they cost, how & where to buy them)
• Bahn.de for checking timetables (break down your journey into smaller chunks if necessary)
• Seat61’s route suggestions. Sometimes a human touch is a better way to find the optimum route between A & B than a machine’s answer. Click your city of origin on this page, and see his suggested routes to your destination
• Chronotrains: how far can I get from this city in X hours?

Hi Sarah,

could you give some more information on why the trip planner on the website had to go? I used the planner all the time in the past, not just because it was easier to use than the planner on the app, but because I was also able to share the trip-url with other people on the trip, making coordination way easier. I didn't see the announcement that it would be sunset, and tried to use it just yesterday.

I hope it's not just because synchronisation between the trip planner on the website and the app was too much of a problem to implement.

Overall I'm very sad to see the planner go, the resources are helpful, sure, but not a replacement for the planner . They would probably work better alongside the planner than as a replacement for it.

Why did this have to go? It was an extremely useful resource, very disappointed to have lost my planned route that I had been working on.

It was extremely helpful, now it’s gone. I guess I’ll be flying.

Hi ​@MrGamy ​@Adam01 & ​@Timasd,

I want to acknowledge how frustrating this is for you, and I understand that losing it has genuinely disrupted how you plan your trips.

Right now the trip planner is offline because we needed to prioritise work that is overall more critical to the traveller experience at this stage. I do not have a clear timeline on if or when we will bring it back. I know that is not the answer you were hoping for. 

I have shared your feedback internally and I will continue doing so, especially around how important this feature has been for many of you. I will keep you posted as things develop.

I appreciate you all taking the time to share your thoughts, even when it is frustrating.

​@MrGamy Is there a reason you preferred sharing the trip-url with your group from the web version rather than from the Railplanner App? 

This is one of the most disappointing things I have heard in a while. Eurail’s trip planner feature is what has kept me using the services and has facilitated travel more than any other tool I have used in the past. The ability to select destinations dynamically, see realistic travel times, see geographical distances and plan so seamlessly before going forward and getting tickers made it so anyone, regardless of their familiarity with an area, could make a solid and achievable itinerary in no time. There is nothing more critical to me, as a traveler, than ironing details out and visualizing my travel with a clear and reliable plan that does the trip duration, pricing, and routing overview that would take me hours or days in seconds. 

I know this is not a question you asked me and I cannot speak for the other user but all the suggestions combine do not begin to fill the gap this feature addressed. I understand that on your end the Railplanner App is a worthy or comparable replacement, but in a world where every single stand alone feature is being spun up into an app (which by the way, are not convenient and actually are a huge a downgrade in experience due to : screen size limitations »  you now have a tiny window to traverse a process that deals with huge maps and landmasses by default, the OS limitations » Apple user vs Android user, Software versions of apps, etc.) that is simply not true. Web experiences are accessible on every device and as a standard, they are usually easier to keep synced up regardless of browser, OS, device size, and facilitate quicker concurrent searching and especially for things as intricate as itineraries, this makes a huge difference. Where an app will mean switching back and forth between devices/apps/windows just to assess an itinerary before you can decide, on a desktop device one can open the relevant website and use split screens and move along faster. Sharing trip details with less technical family/friends was also easy – no new apps to download, no profiles to make, just a clean and straightforward overview that they are one click away from. 

I don’t know how else to plead with you so let me cut to the chase – Please, please reconsider this decision and reinstate the Trip Planner. As you can tell I (and I can imagine a lot of other users out there) am very passionate and was reliant on this feature. It was an integral part of my planning and it helped bring so many life changing trips and experiences to life for me and my loved ones without having to tediously handle every step of the process separately and manually. 

For other users, if you as devastated as I am about this loss, please consider speaking up and/or reacting. Hopefully our thoughts and pleas can help shed light on its importance and bring the beloved feature back. 

Hey everyone — we’re following along here and want to say we’re listening closely to all the feedback being shared.

Helping people plan and organise trips is still important to us and remains on our roadmap. We don’t have specific details to share right now, but we do intend to continue supporting planning in a different, more inspirational way.

We really appreciate everyone taking the time to share thoughts and experiences, it genuinely helps inform what we do next. And as mentioned above, ​@ralderton has posted some helpful tools you can use in the meantime.