Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Is the Eurorail delayed in winter when it snows?

I am going to europe at the end of the year and want to see alot of cities. I was told that the Eurorail gets delayed when it snows in winter and you can be stuck in one city for up too a few days or a few hours, Is this true cause then that would be a pain if a prebook accommodation in the next city and tours.Is the Eurorail delayed in winter when it snows?
Eurorail is just a company selling tickets and passes, not a company running trains.

The trains are run by many different companies, and not all of them in the same kind of conditions.



If there is the normal amount of snow for the country/area involved, most likely there will not be any delays.

But if snow is unexpectedly fierce, there might well be delays, specially in the countries that hardly ever get snow. But most of those delays will be hours rather than days, and often long distance trains will run when local trains on little used tracks can not go on anymore.



Last winter we had lots of snow, and only a few trains were really affected. Except for the Eurostar trains I do not think people were stuck in between countries much, if at all.

Mostly the trains do not have problems when the flights are already canceled, so winter traveling by trains is more reliable than by plane. It is even more reliable than road travel, so better than traveling by bus.



By the way, snow problems are more likely in February and March than in December.

And if you are really concerned, do not book your accommodation beyond the next place you want to visit. You can book online or even by telephone, up to the day you expect to arrive. In winter there will not be much competition for accommodation outside of the Christmas/New Year period.

Same goes for most tours, if you really want to do tours that are likely going to be booked out, plan them after a few days in the same region, so you will have a change even when train travel slows down.

No comments:

Post a Comment