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What’s trending this year in European rail travel

By Scott Hartbeck, TravelPulse

Offering a captivating mix of quintessential European experiences and romantic travel moments you’ll savor long after you leave the continent, rail is very arguably the most rewarding way to explore Europe.

As the peak summer travel season picks up steam, now is the perfect time to step back and take stock of what’s trending in European rail travel.

From which destinations are proving especially popular to reasons travelers are hopping on the train in the first place and some news about new routes and city connections, read on to get up to date on the state of European rail travel in 2024.

The Eurail view

You can’t discuss trends in European trains without getting some perspective from the folks at Eurail, the iconic rail pass as synonymous with European rail travel as the tracks themselves. I recently received an update from Eurail about what it’s seeing in 2024.

First, Eurail has documented an increase in distributor sales in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2024 (year on year), showing that the U.S. market is robust. While shorter passes remain popular, Eurail has also seen a notable shift in the first quarter of 2024 toward the three-month Eurail Pass, meaning that many Americans are choosing to stay longer in Europe, perhaps heeding the call to embrace a slower travel pace and take a deeper dive into the local cultures.

Regarding trending destinations, Eurail has identified some slightly off-the-beaten-track locations that saw spikes in popularity during the first quarter of 2024: Appenzell in Switzerland and Limoges in France. When combined with the previous information about Americans taking longer trips, this data could suggest a growing interest in exploring lesser-known (and less crowded) destinations, which shouldn’t be a surprise in the current climate of overtourism.

According to Eurail, the top five country destinations in the first quarter of 2024 were Switzerland, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Austria.

Speaking of Switzerland, there are some exciting developments for Eurail travelers in 2024, too as several lines in the Jungfrau region are now fully included in the Eurail Pass. This news means travelers no longer have to pay an extra fee to explore beyond Interlaken in this naturally stunning section of the country. Destinations that are now easier to reach include Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen and the mountaintop village of Mürren.

To sum up, Silvia Festa, Senior Business Development Manager at Eurail told me: “As the demand for a more meaningful way of travel continues to grow, we look forward to welcoming U.S. travelers to explore Europe with a Eurail Pass.”

Making tracks to events

People traveling for events isn’t just a trend stateside, as more and more European travelers are traveling for sports and concerts, with these events being woven into the fabric of the European travel culture in 2024. When it comes to specifics, the continent will host some of the most sought-after events on the global sports calendar this year, from annual events like Wimbledon, Monaco Grand Prix, Italian Grand Prix and Tour De France to special happenings like the Summer Olympics and European Soccer Championships.

Leading rail booking platform Trainline has discovered that sports and event tourism is experiencing a true boom in 2024, with one of their recent surveys revealing that a whopping 88% of travelers would prefer to travel by rail to events such as concerts or competitions. The booking company feels so strongly about this trend that it has co-curated a resource of the top European sporting destinations and outdoor experiences that are reachable by rail with Olympic diver Tom Daley.

New routes debut

New connections are making an impact on the European rail world in 2024, and the following are some of the most notable.

Belgrade and Budapest are two of Europe’s most exciting capital cities, but a proper rail connection has been severely lacking for a while now. A new cross-border train route connecting Subotica in Serbia to Szeged in Hungary has been running throughout 2024, filling in a glaring hole in the network and making it possible to travel between the two cities by rail.

Elsewhere, more frequent service will connect the towns of Alba (famed for its truffles) and Asti (renowned for its local wine) in the Piedmont region of Italy this summer, making it easier to put together a food & wine-focused rail adventure in a corner of Italy that is perennially underrated.

A new rail service has been launched on the opposite side of northern Italy by Slovenian Railways. It connects Villa Opicina on the outskirts of Trieste, Italy to Rijeka on the Croatian coast. Along the way, the train stops in the Croatian resort town of Opatija, famed for its grand hotels and glorious sunshine. The service runs through September.

Future tunnel vision

For a relatively short transport tunnel (32 miles if you’re wondering) between Britain and France, there’s been a good amount going on this year regarding rail service through the Channel Tunnel.

First came news that several upstarts have their eye on giving Eurostar some competition on routes across The Channel, with both Dutch and Spanish companies throwing their hat in the ring.

While these upstarts still have multiple hurdles to clear before they take to the tracks, Eurostar — the only rail company currently running service between London and the continent — announced aggressive expansion plans earlier this year. Fresh off a successful 2023 that saw Eurostar carry more than 18 million passengers between London and the continent, the company announced that it plans on purchasing up to 50 new trains. The high-speed trains will be rolled out in the early 2030s when Eurostar hopes to be carrying 30 million passengers per year.

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