Get a little help selling rail itineraries
Pulling together an itinerary by train can be tricky but the Association of European Rail Agents is there to help agents through the process, as Debbie Ward discovers
Whether to access beautiful scenery, embark upon the world’s most iconic journeys or reduce flying, rail travel is becoming increasingly attractive to many people.
But while the Eurostar to Paris, Canada’s Rocky Mountaineer and Australia’s Ghan are famous, selling beyond the most popular tourist routes can be a daunting prospect. This is where the Association of European Rail Agents (AERA) can help. The organisation brings together Europe-based specialists who sell rail travel worldwide.
AERA’s chair Enrico Soresini, who is also the product director for UK-based supplier International Rail, admits that, to an outsider, putting packages together can be confusing. “It’s different from airlines, which will all go into one [GDS] system,” he explains. Different countries have their own railways, and more than 90% of those railways [in Europe], are state-owned or controlled. It’s difficult to have one system overall, as no one country is giving up its reservations system.” He adds: “Members of AERA have systems for their own customers and do this sort of job that nobody’s really doing.”
The train advantage
Rail is increasingly touted as an alternative to flying short-haul. Soresini says it has several advantages but that agents need to be realistic.
“If you compare rail to a cheap airline and you compare only on price, it will never be the cheapest but certainly it’s the greener way and the best if you consider your travel from A to B as part of the holiday, as you have time to look at the scenery. There are a lot of advantages but it will never be the cheapest because there are a lot of countries and railways involved in a journey.”
Best value
Although cross-border itineraries can be expensive, conversely travelling by rail within a country can be more cost effective than by car.
“Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland all offer extremely good value for train travel internally. The only one out of the bunch that doesn’t is the UK. The best is probably Germany,” advises Soresini, adding that deals are common.
“A normal train for long distance can take 700 to 800 passengers so there’s room to make good offers for a certain period of time. So you see, for instance, [a fare of] nine Euros for travelling from the south to the north of Germany or from Milan to the south of Italy quite often.”
Soresini also points out that the Interail pass – 50 years old this year and now available to all ages – can be a good value option.
A day away
More travellers are now researching beyond the one-stop Eurostar destinations for longer train-only itineraries. “We are seeing British tourists starting to do this; it’s not a mass request yet but they are starting to ask for rail travel in this way and putting aside maybe a day for travel,” says Soresini, adding that London to Munich and Cambridge to Montpellier are among day journeys possible without an early-morning departure.
He points out that when air travel’s hidden hours are taken into consideration, the speed becomes more comparable. “When you get to the airport you fly for an hour but the day is gone anyway because you have to travel to the airport, do a certain amount of hours’ check in, then you arrive wherever you arrive, and if it’s close to the town or city where you’re going you’re lucky, otherwise you have to travel in.”
Night train resurgence
The big news in rail is that night services are back in fashion. This should help reduce travelling days (and cost, as it saves a night in a hotel), widening the scope for itineraries such as the UK to Vienna, which can be made via Eurostar to Brussels then an overnight train.
“There is a kind of resurgence of night trains. They had their period in the past then they were taken off sale completely,” explains Soresini. “On some routes they make a completely viable alternative [to flying] for leisure customers and because they’re new trains, and the cabins are much better than they used to be five or six years ago.”
Selling help
For help packaging rail itineraries, agents can contact AERA members via their destination specialisms on aera.co.uk. Following a survey, the organisation is planning to list which are trade-friendly.
Operators too can create packages with AERA’s help. Soresini says: “We see a lot introducing rail into their packages where before they were using coaches. You can combine the two, or combine with a flight then use rail to move around.”
Agents and operators can also contact AERA to ask to join pre-planned webinars given by railways or to request training from trade-friendly AERA members on specific subjects.
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