Trains & Buses

The honest comparison between a train and a plane is not 2 hours versus 1 hour 15. It is door to door: getting to the airport, security, the gate closing 20 to 40 minutes early, the taxi in from the far side. Add that up and high-speed rail tends to win up to roughly four hours of rail journey time, which covers most city pairs in western Europe, Japan and the Chinese eastern corridor.

Buses are a different proposition: slower, much cheaper, and often the only public link where no railway goes. On short intercity hops they are competitive on time once you account for how central the stops are.

Booking windows and why a fare doubles

Most European operators release tickets somewhere between three and six months ahead and price them in tiers that sell out in order. The cheap tier really does disappear. On routes with an advance-purchase market — Eurostar, the French TGV, Italian high-speed, most of Britain — booking early is the single biggest saving available, and it is much larger than the difference between ticket sellers.

Some networks do not work this way at all. German regional services, most of Switzerland, and Spanish commuter rail charge a fixed fare whenever you buy. For those, buying in advance buys you a seat, not a discount.

Reservations: optional, compulsory, or included

This trips people up more than pricing. On some networks a ticket alone lets you board any train; on others (all high-speed services in France, Italy and Spain, and Eurostar) the ticket is for one named train and you cannot use another. If you hold a rail pass, compulsory reservations are an extra fee on top and there is a limited quota per train — which is why pass holders sometimes cannot get on a train that is still selling tickets.

Where to buy

The national operator’s own site is usually the cheapest and always the most authoritative for disruption. Cross-border and multi-operator journeys are where the aggregators earn their small booking fee, because they will sell you one itinerary across companies that do not otherwise talk to each other.

Where to book trains & buses

Common questions

How early do I need to arrive for a train?

For ordinary domestic services, ten minutes is plenty — there is no check-in. The exceptions are international services with border control: Eurostar asks Standard and Plus passengers to arrive about 75 minutes before departure at London St Pancras and 75 to 90 minutes at Paris Gare du Nord, and the gate closes 30 minutes before departure.

Are rail passes worth it?

Only if you are making long journeys on most days and travelling on networks where reservations are cheap or optional. On French, Italian and Spanish high-speed routes the compulsory reservation fees erode the benefit quickly. Price your actual itinerary as point-to-point advance tickets first, then compare.