Railway travel, Eurail, passes

I can answer only a little. Trainline is a reseller and by no means shows all the trains. Look at the train companies operating in each country for the realistic prices. For Italy look at Tren Italia and Italo train. Rome to Florence trains are very frequent and inexpensive.

For London, I'd go to Geneva and fly. It's a slog changing train stations in Paris, early check-in for the Eurostar, all time consuming. Finally, the Eurail pass doesn't make financial sense for your trip.

I don't know enough about Switzerland, but others do and can answer.

In Italy, only Trenitalia trains accept Eurail, so no Italo Treno trains, but Italo only operates high speed trains and Trenitalia trains have high speed trains on the same tracks and are more frequent.

Swiss trains accept Eurail Passes, except the trains from Interlaken Ost to Muerren. There you get a 25% discount with a Eurail Pass.

You will need to buy seat reservations for trains from Rome to Florence and Florence to Switzerland. When you buy tickets without the pass, the seat reservations are included in the price.

In Muerren, you do get a 25% discount with the Eurail Pass on the Schilthornbahn cable car.

I would recommend you fly Geneva to London. I take it that the other 4 will fly home from Geneva..

It is still not clear to me that a Eurail Pass will be beneficial. It will still take some number crunching to decide.

I take it that you have read this site:>https://www.seat61.com

How much are you paying to go from Rome to Florence with the pass? I mean the total cost adding 6 seat reservations.

I have made a random search on trenitalia.com/en.html putting July 10 as day of travel and 8 AM as departure time. The cheapest tickets cost 27.90€ per person, but no changes and no refunds are allowed.

Italotreno could be even cheaper if you subscribed to their newsletter and used the discount codes they email on Fridays

As explained above, when you directly buy from the railway company the seat reservation is always included in the ticket cost.

I doubt Eurail passes are cheaper than discounted tickets from Rome to Florence and from Florence to Milan. But I am sure that in Italy passes are less flexible than regular tickets: since you must get a seat reservation at the counter, you'd end up waiting in line before getting on the train.

Eurail passes are actually the most expensive option in most cases, especially in the countries you are visiting. Best to just buy the train tickets from the companies that actually run the trains. Eurail is not a train company.

Rome to Florence - 9.90 Euro per person, https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Rome.htm#Rome-Italy

Florence to Murren - 45 Euro, https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Florence.htm#Florence-Switzerland

Murren to Lausanne - Look on SBB but won’t be much.

You really want to fly from Switzerland to London. The train makes no sense.

So is your Eurail pass about 100 Euro? Maybe a Swiss Pass (not from Eurail!!) makes sense for the Swiss portion of your trip.

3) I did not calculate with the possibility of needing to buy seat
reservations. If I buy separate tickets for each part of my trip, does
the "reservation fee" come with it?

Yes, on trains with a mandatory seat reservation, a single ticket will include a seat.

4) I know travel from Geneva to London faster by air. My daughter has
never been to Europe. Is that a compelling reason to go the slow way
on trail?

Yes, but it probably won't be much faster when you take all the airport faff into account.

Any quick stops we could make on the way?

Paris would be a great place for a stop. It sounds like a great reason to spend a night in Paris. But if that doesn't fit your plans, take an early train to Paris. Leave your bags at the station and spend a few hours in Paris before boarding the train to London.

Generally speaking; If you are going to reserve your train trips before you leave for Europe you should not get an Eurail Pass. Don't forget you still need to reserve tickets, and in Italy that is 13,- per high speed train, and for the TGV from Switzerland to Paris the surcharge is even 27,-. Which is just a bit less than the cheapest advance purchase tickets. Getting these pass reservations on line before your travel is however next to impossible. The intention is that you would this at the station. Hence my remark on not buying an Eurail Pass is you are the kind of traveler that wants his ground transportation sorted before leaving for Europe.

For Italy just book tickets directly with either Italo or Trenitalia. They have certain offers, like 2for one, that make it pointless to us an Eurail Pass. You need to reserve anyway, and the Eurail Pass is not valid on Italo. Trenitalia can also book you Firenze - Interlaken. Since you are only staying 2 nights in Mürren a pass does not make much sense.

For Switzerland you can book tickets in advance on www.sbb.ch, and for Lausanne - London you can on www.scnf-connect.com

(Note that I would stay in some place more interesting than Lausanne, eg. Vevey. Does not change the logistics much).

We had Eurail passes for our first family trip to Europe last year. I did not even consider a Eurail pass this year (me and husband only). While we made it work for us and I think it terms of cost we broke even (I bought the tickets on sale 20%+ off, husband is a senior citizen, adult children were still considered students, etc.), but I found the whole process too limiting and cumbersome.

Eurail passes are similar to booking flights via travel rewards websites; not all trains / times are available for Eurail purchase. So no, not all trains shown on the trainline are available for Eurail purchase.

Yes, you will pay a reservation fee each time you use the pass. Depending on the train (like the Eurostar), it can be significant.

In Italy, to use the Eurail pass to book on Trentalia, you will have to go to the train station to book it. I think via a fluke, I was able to book our trains from Milan to Rome via the website (because I had those tickets before we landed), but every other trip in Italy, we had to go to the station to book it - that was not convenient at all.

Rome to Florence - 9.90 Euro per person, https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Rome.htm#Rome-Italy
Florence to Murren - 45 Euro, https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Florence.htm#Florence-Switzerland

Bit of fantasy you could find these prices in late July. Dario pointed out the cheapest prices for Rome to Florence in late July.
Trenitalia only shows prices as far as Interlaken Ost, and 100 EUR per person is the best I can find. Cost of Interlaken Ost to Muerren is 18.80 CHF per person, so with a Eurail Pass it is 14.10 CHF, and you will have to stop in the station to buy tickets with a Eurail Pass.

SBB allows you to buy tickets all the way to any station in Switzerland. So there you can buy, for example, Florence to Mürren.

In the past, I've priced out Eurail passes and they weren't even close to a good deal. Plus, they sound like a major hassle with having to do the seat reservations, etc. I'm annoyed, actually, that RS mentions them/sells them, because they don't ever seem to be in the travelers' best interest.

I did buy a Swiss Pass for one of our trips in Switzerland. It was convenient, but even there, I probably just broke even. However, I'd buy one again. Also, the Swiss Travel Pass includes many museums, including Chillion which is close to Lausanne. If you are looking at the possibility of a BO pass, I feel that's another reason to not do the Eurail. However, since the plan is only 2 days in Murren, I have to think that the Swiss Travel Pass or Half fare card would be a better deal since you will be in Lausanne.

We once took the train from Geneva to Paris. I think it was about 4 hours. If you had an interest in Paris, for a night or two (which doesn't even begin to cover Paris, I know) them maybe the train is worthwhile.

Thank you so much for all of your help! I think it probably sense to just pay as we go and not do any passes. I had a few follow-up questions:
1) we will be traveling from Milan to Murren. I know we will have to take a cable car from Lauterbrunnen. When I look this up, there are about 5 choices which seems weird since a it’s a small place. Do I just pick the first one that says Lauterbrunnen?

2) also, when I go in to book this, the website indicates this is a low to medium occupancy. Is it wise to buy ahead of time and negate ability to be flexible. Or is there typically plenty of space and I should just wait.

Thanks for the help!

I still think you don’t fully understand. Pay as you go is also expensive! You want to go to the websites of the companies that run the trains (not Eurail! Not train line!!) and buy your tickets online, in advance. I have links above with specific instructions on how to do this. Do you go to the airport and buy your plane tickets just before you fly? No. The cheaper train tickets are limited in number so the sooner you sort this out, the cheaper it will be.

take a cable car from Lauterbrunnen. When I look this up, there are about 5 choices which seems weird since a it’s a small place. Do I just pick the first one that says Lauterbrunnen?

neither. Buy a ticket to your destination. Swiss transportation is really well meshed together and integrated and all parts work together. Just buy a ticket A to B.

So use the SBB app and buy a ticket from Milan to Muerren or Wengen if that is your destination.

Then you will just see the chosen route with any required changes. It might say Milano Centrale - Spiez - Interlaken Ost - Lauterbrunnen - Gruetschalp - Muerren.

Don't worry about all the Lauterbrunnen stops. The one that just says Lauterbrunnen is the train station. The others are bus stops because Lauterbrunnen has buses, or minor train stations or cable car stations. If you look at Interlaken West or Ost you will even see boats because they are part of the system too.

It just routes you the fastest way regardless of transportation equipment. You can of course modify the route if you want and that may modify the cost.