Eurail vs Britrail pass

[zero]

In the current sale, an Eurail Global Pass 1st class 15 days in 2 months is only approx £440.

As I am a non-UK/non-European resident I must use Eurail which doesn't offer a single country pass for Great Britain, it just redirects you to Britrail. (Getting the same validity with Interrail for GB only would be approx £530.)

Meanwhile a Britrail Pass 1st class 15 days in 2 months is approx £850. Actually the 22 day consecutive is slightly cheaper and will also cover what I need.

I assume there is no problem with using a Global Pass in only one country, but why is there such a big price discrepancy? The only difference seems to be that Eurail/Interrail is not valid on Heathrow Express.



I used Britrail earlier this year and scanning was very easy at almost all station barriers and on board. However Eurail barcodes don't work UK barriers. Also there is the requirement to add each trip to the app. For a £400 saving I can probably accept these problems.

But I am just wondering how the requirement is enforced. I guess you must add a trip before you board a train and it may not let you do it after the scheduled departure time?

I plan to make very tight connections (including some with 0 minutes transfer time - if I don't make it I will just wait for the next one). Will the app let me have an "illogical" itinerary and is it easy to adjust your itinerary as you go? Whereas on Britrail if I saw that a train had not closed its doors yet I could just hop on without needing to log it on an app first.

Also I intend to use stations such as Euston and Blackpool North which are known for poor service at the barriers - does anyone have any experience of using Interrail/Eurail there?

 

[crablab]

But I am just wondering how the requirement is enforced. I guess you must add a trip before you board a train and it may not let you do it after the scheduled departure time?

I don't think it's strictly enforced, but I have heard of people being penalised on SNCF trains for not having the journey in their travel log.
The more important part is that you've activated a pass day prior to boarding.
You can continue to edit your travel log (on the Interrail app), even for previous days. It's more for their accounting purposes after the fact.

Will the app let me have an "illogical" itinerary

Yes. You can have overlapping trains etc. in your itinerary and then edit to reflect what you actually did.

I plan to make very tight connections (including some with 0 minutes transfer time - if I don't make it I will just wait for the next one).

Yes this is fine; it's the whole point of Interrail. You can, as explained above, adjust your itinerary as you go.

This has to be possible anyway, since you might originally start with a through train from (eg) Euston to Glasgow. But you decide to get off at Birmingham and take a detrour, or your train is cancelled etc. You then have to remove the original itinerary, add just the Euston to Birmingham leg and then continue. Thus previous journeys have to be mutable.

It's very easy You're definitely overthinking it, although your concerns are totally valid!

does anyone have any experience of using Interrail/Eurail there?

Can't comment for those specific stations, but I can say that around London in general I've had pretty good acceptance.

 

[Rich the Eagle]

It’s somewhat enforced in the UK, where every train is available to passholders without a reservation fee. As long as you start the day with at least one journey and the pass activated, you should be fine.

Countries like France enforce it a lot more rigorously as a lot of their trains require paid reservations to be made in advance to use the pass.

 

[Segedunum]

You can add journeys as you please, including in the past. I've had situations where I've added multiple journeys then simply activated the one I actually chose to take and just deleted the rest.

The planner also isn't normally updated to reflect engineering works in GB so there will be situations where you'll just end up activating the travel day with whatever journey seems closest.

Staff knowledge of Interrail in GB isn't the greatest but I've not experienced any hostility to it or any insistence on seeing a specific journey in the app. The most I've had is a particularly keen LNER TM (who seemed to be reciting his training!) ask for matching ID. It generally doesn't scan on board (other than on LNER) but again, staff know to just visually inspect (in contrast to other countries where I've had staff lose their rag with me because 'computer says no').

 

[canary fan]

In the current sale, an Eurail Global Pass 1st class 15 days in 2 months is only approx £440.

As I am a non-UK/non-European resident I must use Eurail which doesn't offer a single country pass for Great Britain, it just redirects you to Britrail. (Getting the same validity with Interrail for GB only would be approx £530.)

Meanwhile a Britrail Pass 1st class 15 days in 2 months is approx £850. Actually the 22 day consecutive is slightly cheaper and will also cover what I need.

I assume there is no problem with using a Global Pass in only one country, but why is there such a big price discrepancy? The only difference seems to be that Eurail/Interrail is not valid on Heathrow Express.



I used Britrail earlier this year and scanning was very easy at almost all station barriers and on board. However Eurail barcodes don't work UK barriers. Also there is the requirement to add each trip to the app. For a £400 saving I can probably accept these problems.

But I am just wondering how the requirement is enforced. I guess you must add a trip before you board a train and it may not let you do it after the scheduled departure time?

I plan to make very tight connections (including some with 0 minutes transfer time - if I don't make it I will just wait for the next one). Will the app let me have an "illogical" itinerary and is it easy to adjust your itinerary as you go? Whereas on Britrail if I saw that a train had not closed its doors yet I could just hop on without needing to log it on an app first.

Also I intend to use stations such as Euston and Blackpool North which are known for poor service at the barriers - does anyone have any experience of using Interrail/Eurail there?

If you are concerned about logging on to the app, have you considered the paper pass. It’s still available on interrail, so I assume on eurail as well. I’ve used it for years including last summer in a range of countries with no issues at all.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I've just been through Blackpool North, and there was no ticket check before boarding.
They just keep you waiting on the concourse until they deign to open the gate to let you through for a particular train.

 

[zero]

I've just been through Blackpool North, and there was no ticket check before boarding.
They just keep you waiting on the concourse until they deign to open the gate to let you through for a particular train.

But there are ticket barriers and Interrail/Eurail tickets will not open them automatically.

 

[zero]

Well, I've been using an Eurail mobile pass over the past 3 weeks and there haven't been any problems.

Half of barrier staff just open the gate when I flash the app at them and the other half read it more closely before letting me through, but nobody has ever asked to see the journey log, they only want to see the date and the name of the pass.

On board most guards / TMs just glance at the app and then move on. Where relevant, they do want to check it says 1st class. Nobody has asked for ID.

As mentioned you can edit all your logged journeys even after the fact. In the beginning it was possible to edit previous days, but last week the app was updated and now you can only edit the current day's journeys until the end of the day.

With the poor weather there has been so much disruption that I've never managed to take the trains I initially planned - but since realising that nobody cares I've not bothered to update the log to what I actually do.

The only slightly annoying thing is having to wave down a staff member at barriers, or wait until they've finished dealing with other people whose tickets don't scan. But for the £400 saving over a Britrail that I mentioned in the OP it was worth it.