Eurail & Interrail validity in the UK & Ireland

[mad_rich]

I've asked this on the Eurail forums, but I thought I'd also run it past the wisdom on here, before letting it loose on unsuspecting foreign tourists. Is there anything I've missed?

Franchise & concessions: aka “National Rail” - all operators, including Sleepers* and high-speed

Open Access Operators: Lumo, Hull Trains, Grand Central, Eurostar*
(Not Heathrow Express, heritage railways)

London: London Overground, Thameslink, Elizabeth Line (+ other National Rail obviously)
(Not Tube, tram, Heathrow Express, DLR)

Airport “Expresses”: Stansted Express, Luton Express, Gatwick Express
(Not Heathrow Express, Luton Airport DART)
(Gatwick Transit, Heathrow Terminal Transfer, and Birmingham Air-Rail Link are all free anyway)

Northern Ireland: Translink trains, Enterprise

Ireland: Iarnród Éireann, DART, Enterprise
(Not LUAS)

*supplement required

-

Other cities

Merseyrail (Liverpool) - Yes, part of National Rail
Island Line (Isle of Wight) - Yes, part of National Rail
Glasgow - Not Subway, but Scotrail’s Glasgow Stations Bus Link is included
Tyne and Wear Metro - Valid for direct journeys between Newcastle Central-Heworth-Sunderland (but not intermediate stops), as Metro & rail tickets are interchangeable here

Trams in London, Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester and Dublin are all not included.

 

[30907]

Don't think you've missed anything.
If you are aiming at visitors, then perhaps add "Special and heritage trains on National Rail including The Jacobite - not valid"
I think the wording could be better, but it needs a mention because there are a few countries where heritage services would be covered (eg the RhB Davos-Filisur vintage train).
Also, to the * note, "certain other operators claim that their services require a reservation, but this is not strictly necessary. Reservations made online or at UK stations are free of charge."

 

[mad_rich]

Yes, the reservations thing is difficult. It's there in the data they supply - eg if you check LNER on Bahn.com - so it's true in the sense that that's the "official position", even though it's not true in practice.

The reservations post is already turning into a short essay.

 

[rvdborgt]

Yes, the reservations thing is difficult. It's there in the data they supply - eg if you check LNER on Bahn.com - so it's true in the sense that that's the "official position", even though it's not true in practice.

Well, LNER explicitly state on their website that there's unreserved seating available. You can't say that and at the same time maintain in your timetable data that reservations are compulsory. That's plain incorrect, or since it seems to be intentional, classifies as lying in my book.

 

[30907]

Yes, the reservations thing is difficult. It's there in the data they supply - eg if you check LNER on Bahn.com - so it's true in the sense that that's the "official position", even though it's not true in practice.

The reservations post is already turning into a short essay.

Just use the second part, which is important to save your customers EUR6.

 

[mad_rich]

No 'customers' to speak of by the way. At least not mine! Just for advise on the forum.

 

[Tester]

No 'customers' to speak of by the way. At least not mine! Just for advise on the forum.

Is Heathrow Express definitely excluded?

I haven't used it for ages, but it certainly was included in the past.

 

[Flying Snail]

Is Heathrow Express definitely excluded?

I haven't used it for ages, but it certainly was included in the past.

I don't think Heathrow Express was ever valid on Interrail/eurail, it certainly isn't now. It was and is included with Britrail passes though.

 

[A S Leib]

Don't think you've missed anything.
If you are aiming at visitors, then perhaps add "Special and heritage trains on National Rail including The Jacobite - not valid"
I think the wording could be better, but it needs a mention because there are a few countries where heritage services would be covered (eg the RhB Davos-Filisur vintage train).
Also, to the * note, "certain other operators claim that their services require a reservation, but this is not strictly necessary. Reservations made online or at UK stations are free of charge."

Is it the case that the all line rover is valid on the Ffestiniog Railway but Brit- / Inter- / Eurail passes aren't?

 

[rvdborgt]

I don't think Heathrow Express was ever valid on Interrail/eurail

They had it on their website at one point, but removed it some time ago. For a while, they still had a remnant of the validity on their page, which was then saying "BritRail Consective Eurail Passholder"...

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

The '*compulsory reservation' marker also includes some trains, ie. Sleepers and Eurostar, which in effect require supplement for berths (in Sleepers) and seats (in Eurostar).

In my experience few real people know what 'National Rail' means, it's more of a TfL concept. So you might want to omit this?

And of course Ireland/Northern Ireland are in effect a separate, combined country from GB for Interail/eurail purposes (only) so passengers must hold passes that are valid there (ie are not GB only): Global Passes which are issued for GB residents can be used there throughout the passes validity but only on two specific days in GB for the inward/outward journey.

For all its faults, it might also be worth directing people to timetables on the national rail app as it is much more likely to be accurate in GB than the interrail one (and also gives live running information as well)...

 

[rvdborgt]

For all its faults, it might also be worth directing people to timetables on the national rail app as it is much more likely to be accurate in GB than the interrail one (and also gives live running information as well)...

The Interrail website and the rail planner app should never be used for any planning in any country.

 

[mad_rich]

The '*compulsory reservation' marker also includes some trains, ie. Sleepers and Eurostar, which in effect require supplement for berths (in Sleepers) and seats (in Eurostar).

Good point. I'll change it to supplement.

In my experience few real people know what 'National Rail' means, it's more of a TfL concept. So you might want to omit this?

Yes, I'm struggling to come up with a snappy description. I know what I mean! (All the train operators which came out of privatisation of BR, and are now franchises, concessions or directly-operated, and which might one day become Great British Rail) but that's not snappy!

I just wanted to clarify 'normal mainline trains' as distinct from 'anything which might have a question mark over it' - OAOs, high speed, Airport Express, TfL, international, etc. The passengers will usually be guided through it anyway, rather than left to their own devices.

 

[Tester]

I don't think Heathrow Express was ever valid on Interrail/eurail, it certainly isn't now. It was and is included with Britrail passes though.

That makes sense - thinking about it my use of it would have been with Britrail, prior to Eurail being valid in GB.

 

[dutchflyer]

The still fairly new open-access operator LUMO is not mentioned here in the REServ. postings and I understand it runs its trains fully reserved. There was some monthes ago a discussion on the eu/interrailforum which concluded effetcively due to this the pass could not be used on their services-so take LNER. Has there been changes in this - there was a kind of promise they would start to accept all these passes ´soon´! Forgive me if I mixed some things up perhaps with others.

 

[mad_rich]

Lumo appears on the Eurail list, and their trains show as valid in the Railplanner. Albeit with the same 'reservations required' marker as LNER.

I don't think reservations

 

[rvdborgt]

Lumo does not have mandatory reservations:

Book Your Train Seat Reservations | Lumo

Book your train seat directly through our website or app for a seamless experience onboard.

www.lumo.co.uk

They recommend making a seat reservation but it is not mandatory.
That means they're also lying in their timetable data.

 

[Segedunum]

The departure screens at Newcastle regularly say "reservations mandatory" for Lumo services too. I've no idea why, as they aren't, and this isn't consistently displayed for every service.

Granted, there are few instances where you'd probably want to use them if you have a pass - other than if using first/last trains (where there's no LNER alternative) which are rarely full anyway.

 

[Watershed]

The still fairly new open-access operator LUMO is not mentioned here in the REServ. postings and I understand it runs its trains fully reserved. There was some monthes ago a discussion on the eu/interrailforum which concluded effetcively due to this the pass could not be used on their services-so take LNER. Has there been changes in this - there was a kind of promise they would start to accept all these passes ´soon´! Forgive me if I mixed some things up perhaps with others.

Lumo accepts all the usual passes valid on National Rail services, including Britrail and Interrail. Like Avanti and LNER, their services are falsely marked as reservations compulsory in the timetable data but this is not actually the case in practice - there is no penalty for boarding without a reservation.

However, their trains aren't exactly the most comfortable and there is very limited capacity for luggage. Without a reservation you may also be limited to the unreserved, windowless seats at the end of the coach.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Dec 2023 ==

*supplement required

A supplement is required to use sleeper berths, which can be obtained online or from GWR/Caledonian Sleeper's customer services.

However no supplement is needed to use the seats on either sleeper. On Caledonian Sleeper seat reservations are compulsory whilst on GWR they're not compulsory, but they are advisable to avoid being turned away in the event the train is fully reserved. In both cases a reservation can be made for free online or through customer services.

 

[37201xoIM]

Just one extra point: it might be worth you being explicit in your posting / advice that to use Eurostar, you need to be valid both in Britain and in the "other end" country, as well as of course having the reservation.