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Eurail pass in the UK

Posted by on

I will be in the UK for the month of June. For roughly 8 days (not consecutive) I will be traveling by train from Scotland, on to England and then Wales. And because of social commitments, my route/schedule is best described as "higgledy-piggledy."

However, I cannot tie down my schedule to allow the purchase of advanced tickets tied to specific trains/dates. And the prospect of line works and strikes has me concerned. Hence I am inclined to get a rail pass (more expensive that advanced purchase tickets, but so be it).

A Global EuRail Pass (7 days/1 month or 10 days/ 2 months) would fill the bill, and seems to be better for me than a BritRail pass.

Is there any reason NOT to get a EuRail pass and use it exclusively in the UK? Are there mandatory reservations on any lines? Are there EuRail restrictions that I have not uncovered?

TIA

Posted by
5841 posts

Is there a price difference between Eurail and Britrail in favour of the former.
There are no mandatory reservation trains in the UK.
I am not sure what advantage you think any pass will give you in the event of strikes or line works.
The short answer is none.
In fact if you have a pass you are unlikely to get any refund on a strike day.
If you have point to point tickets, advance or otherwise, you will get a refund.
In the event of planned engineering there will always be a bus replacement service. Your pass will give you no special treatment there.
Have you actually costed out your trip on walk up tickets to establish if the pass is actually cheaper?

Posted by
96 posts

Yes, the EuRail pass has a slight price advantage.

My thinking about strikes is that the pass gives me flexibility and avoids the possible hassle of having purchased tickets for a strike day and then having to deal with refunds. And it gives me flexibility about which train I want to take on a given day (eg. if I want to go from Hereford to Milton Keynes, I would not be tied to a specific train on that day).

I also figure it will give me more creativity on routes. For example to get to London from Edinburgh rather than taking the efficient 4.5 hour train, I'd like to head to Carlisle, and from there to Leeds (thus riding the Carlisle-Settle segment) and from Leeds on to London. I think I would have to buy a lot of separate tickets to do that route.

I may be wrong all of this. The last time I purchased a train ticket in the UK was in 2017 when I simply bought same day tickets at the train station.

Posted by
3122 posts

I agree with the OP's reasoning. It's been many years since I traveled around the UK on a what was then called a BritRail pass (colloquially a "rover ticket"), but I remember fondly the convenience of just getting on the train of my choice without having to worry about buying a ticket, let alone pursuing a refund in case of cancellation.

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