Eurail revamps European rail pass range

Seeing Europe by train just got easier. Eurail, which offers pan-European rail passes, has announced that from next year travellers will be able to buy single-country rail passes.

Existing Eurail passes offer great flexibility for those wanting to travel by train across several countries, but less so for those just wanting to explore one country.

Its Eurailpass allows unlimited rail travel in 17 European countries, but the closest it offers to single country travel is its nine country combinations, which include France - Italy, Germany - Denmark, Romania - Hungary, and Spain - Portugal.

But from January 1st next year, the new Eurail National Pass programme will allow travellers to buy passes for any one of Finland, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain or Sweden.

The pass is available for three to ten travel days, for either one or two months.

"The Eurail National Pass was created to match the way many of our customers travel today," said Rene de Groot, Eurail's managing director.

"More and more overseas visitors are coming to Europe for shorter periods of time, and this new pass will allow them to comfortably explore one country in depth in one trip."

Eurail is also introducing new country combinations and adding Romania to the existing 17 participating countries for 2006.

Austria - Czech-Republic, Austria - Switzerland and France – Germany are among the new country combinations on offer.

"The original Regional Passes have been enormously popular among travellers with a limited timeframe who wish to focus on a specific corner of Europe while travelling in style. As Eurail keeps expanding the choices, Eurail Passes allow travellers to custom tailor their own itineraries with built-in ease and flexibility."

For more information see www.eurail.com.

Interrail also offers pan-European rail passes. For further information see: www.interrailnet.com