Mobile Booking and High-Speed Rail Are Killing the Eurail Pass
Photo Credit: Backpackers onboard a night train in Eastern Europe. Flickr / Felix Montino
Skift Take
A more informed planning process and the desire for last-minute mobile tickets are making the once popular European rail pass a travel relic with less and less relevance to today's young travelers.
A combination of booking technology, mobile devices and changing traveler habits is leading to the disappearance of what was once an iconic product for U.S. travelers: the European rail pass.
In earlier years travelers would head to Europe with their paper Eurail Passes for a month-long jaunt across Europe's famous sites, cheap hotels, parties, and cultural landmarks.
In a case of the chicken and the egg, the trend both opened up the market for and grew because of European rail passes that gave users an unlimited number of boardings in major European countries for a set period of time.
Rail Europe, still a popular rail booking platform today, first introduced the pass product in 1959. It remained the company's sole product until 2006 when it offered point-to-p
