CROSS EUROPEAN RAIL LINKS CONTINUE TO IMPROVE

While in the UK we now wait to see which Train Operator(s) will offer better rail connections with European destinations, several daytime links across Europe continue to improve. Some of these are explained below:-

(1) PARIS to BERLIN: Until last year passengers had to change trains in Frankfurt. There is now a direct daily service between the 2 capital cities taking about 8 hours in each direction.

(2) PRAGUE to GDYNIA (BALTIC EXPRESS): Thanks to co-operation between the Czech State Railways and the Polish State Railways in 2024 a 4 times daily Eurocity Service going via Wroclaw and Poznan was launched. The end-to-end journey time is about 9 hours with many opportunities to stop off and visit attractive and interesting cities along the way. The service runs every 4 hours, where the last train of the day is effectively a “night train”. taking about 10.5 hours. You can read more about the journey here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20250221-the-baltic-express-central-europes-new-hop-on-hop-off-train

(3) WARSAW to the 3 BALTIC CAPITAL CITIES: Until a few years ago it was virtually impossible to make this journey, as there were no through services and no proper connections linking the 4 capital cities. Then 2 years ago a regular daily service began between Warsaw and Vilnius with a simple connection at Mockava on the Lithuanian border. We have just heard that this service will be increasing to 3 times a day in 2026 !! Then last year a regular daily service began linking Vilnius with Riga. And finally in 2025 this service was extended to Valga on the Estonian border with a simple onward connection to Tallinn.

(4) MORE DIRECT DAY TRAINS PLANNED BETWEEN ITALY, AUSTRIA AND GERMANY via the Brenner Pass: Again, due to co-operation between the 3 State Rail companies, 2 daily Eurocity services linking both Milan and Rome to Munich will run from December 2026. These will be followed by 2 more in 2027, one linking Milan and Berlin and another linking Naples with Munich. Finally in 2028 a further service will be introduced between Naples and Berlin.