I had a leisurely departure from London at 3pm (which contrasted greatly to many previous mad morning rushes) followed by a few hours on the Eurostar to Brussels and a very comfortable German ICE train to Cologne (where all announcements were in *four* languages – French, Flemish, German and English). I spent my two hours in Cologne wandering along the river and having my last proper meal before 30 hours on a train. I grabbed some beers and other last minute supplies, and found my way to the night-train at 10pm.

My night train carriage. Note the Russian and German text.

When I got to my coach I was immediately greeted by an umsmiling, no-nonsense, Russian man, who took my ticket, asked if I spoke any German (to which I replied “Ein sehr klein”), and pointed me in the direction of my sleeping compartment (“funf und zwanzig”). One thing to note about joining the Moscow night train in Cologne is that because it is going so far East it doesn’t even list Moscow as a destination, presumably because they assume no-one would be mad enough to travel that far in one go, and so the listed destination was Warsaw, despite the carriage I was travelling in clearly belonging to Russian Railways.

When I arrived in my compartment I was greeted by a portly gentleman in his sixties. We quickly determined each other’s nationality – he Russian, I English, and neither sharing more than two words in the other’s language. This barrier only fuelled the friendliness between us, and as the train departed Cologne we quickly started learning as much as we could about each other with the use of my (very limited) Lonely Planet English-Russian dictionary, and a pencil and paper (for numbers and diagrams).

Pavel (as I soon learnt was the man’s name) was a retired military man. He’d studied in military school in St Petersburg, and his career, as some kind of military scientist, had taken him as far afield as Algeria. He had been visiting his son Artem near Utrecht, where he lives with his Dutch wife and 8 year-old son (Pavel’s grandson). Artem is a software engineer and moved to the Netherlands 12 years ago. I wondered to myself whether there are lots of parents in Russia whose children have moved away for jobs abroad (just as Eugene is about to do when comes to London with Loco2).

One tool at our disposal for communicating, which I didn’t have on my trip around Eastern Europe a few years ago, was the internet on my phone (I had bought a ‘data bundle’ so it cost me £5/day to use the internet in the EU). In order to fully explain the purpose of my visit to Pavel I pasted the text of my recent blog post into Google Translate so that Pavel could read it in Russian. He in turn then showed me his website, from which I was able to gather that he (a) enjoys carving tortured figures in wood (which he described jokingly as an ‘Autoportrait’, which I guessed meant self-portrait) and (b) he sometimes enjoys sporting a hat and sunglasses. I translated some of a PDF from his site which included a Giordino Bruno quote; from this I surmised that he was an academic attempting to fuse the science of quantum physics with a universal human philosophy of nature, and was publishing his revelations in collaboration with a university in Boston, USA.

After a few beers and some further chats, Pavel and I climbed into our bunks and got some sleep. Interestingly I found that the times I was most awake is when the train is not moving, due to the rocking nature of the motion. One of these times was at about 4am when we were joined by Sebastian in Berlin.

Pavel and Sebastian in our compartment

Sebastian is a German studying Russian in Moscow, and was on the train to rejoin his studies for the final month of a three month placement. He spoke good English and Russian, and so I was able to clear up some of the uncertainties from the previous night’s conversation. For example, it turned out that Pavel was not a philosopher, but a chemical physicist who had a pending patent with the Boston University thanks to his career in the Russian air force. The lack of a philosophical aspect to Pavel’s academic work was mildly disappointing, but it was good to be clear.

Sebastian was brought up in East Berlin until the fall of the Berlin wall, and had previously visited his Russian wife’s grandmother who lived on the Russian/Khazakstan border, so there was plenty to talk about. The landscape outside began slowly changing and we saw more wooden houses in villages and more open plains.

View out of the window on the Belarussian border

We eventually crossed the border into Belarus at which point I braced myself for a brutal dictatorship, and allowed the early glimpses of military border guards to compound this expectation. After a relatively gruff official asked me to complete an immigration card and we moved on into Brest, I was beginning to feel more remote from “The West”…

After a long time waiting at customs we moved into a special shed used to lift the train up and replace the wheels to fit with the wider gauge of track in Belarus and into Russia. At this point we were joined on the train by numerous Babushkas (Russian for Grandma) adorned with stereotypically Eastern European clothes and ’80s haircuts (no offence intended). They jumped on to sell us beer (‘Piva’), potato pancakes (‘Draniki’) and gherkins. Pavel jumped at this and insisted to pay for the three of us to have a feast, clearly expressing his delight at how delicious it all was. I was touched by the gesture and tucked in with enthusiasm.

Wheels being changed in a train yard near Brest

The process of the wheels being changed was fascinating and definitely the oddest train-based experience I’ve ever had. The train is lifted up about by about 4 feet using cranks, with all passengers still inside. The wheels (including axles and other housing) are detached and removed, and new wheels fitting the wider gauge track are fitted. Each carriage is done in turn, with half of the train in parallel to the other half, and then there’s a lot of banging and bumping as the carriages are reattached and the train proceeds out of the station.

By the time we got to Brest station itself, I was glad to get some fresh air since the air conditioning had been off whilst we were stationary, and the sun was by now beating down (in stark contrast to the rain I had left in London). We then went onwards into Belarus, stopping at the Capital Minsk at about 11pm.

Sebastian at Minsk station

My expectations of Minsk were quickly disproved as I was surprised by how modern the city was. My preconceptions had been based on my limited knowledge of the fact that the country is controlled by an ex-Communist Dictator. This initial impression had been compounded earlier in the day when I witnessed the stern border guards and the deeply “proletariat”-looking workers who changed the rail gauges. The reality of Minsk seemed different and I’d like to return properly in the future to understand more about the country, its politics and people.

Sebastian and I went to sleep soon after Minsk, joining Pavel who had already retired to his bunk thanks to the fact he was leaving us at 4am at Smolensk. I awoke at 9am after a great night’s sleep, on the outskirts of Moscow, and was soon in the heart of the city…

Loco2 co-founder Jamie Andrews is gallivanting around Russia on a well-deserved break by train. You can read about how to find and book trains in Russia in the Engine Room, ask your own questions and submit your ideas too. All aboard!

When you reach the ‘Choose passengers’ page you’ll be able to select your seating preference if your journey includes a Duplex train. Choose upstairs if you fancy the view, or downstairs if you’d prefer not to climb the stairs. Loco2 will try to reserve a seat on the upper or lower deck according to your preference.

Duplex trains are available on a number of TGV routes, linking Paris to destinations in the south and southeast of France like Aix en Provence, Nice and Marseille. There is also a TGV-Lyria Duplex service operating on the Paris-Geneva route. We haven’t got an exhaustive list of routes which operate Duplex trains yet, but whenever the option is available we’ll give the choice when you reach the choose passenger page.

Image: SNCF TGV Duplex By Kabelleger/David Gubler reproduced with thanks under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 licence

There are lots of ways to keep your feet on the ground, so we’ve compiled our top ways to ease the strain (and only one of them is go by train…).

Stay on track

Ah, holidays! We spend all year working to go on one, spending months planning and dreaming about them, and months more reliving them by regaling friends and family with everything we did on them. So why do we waste our precious holiday time sitting in airport departure lounges, convincing people that we packed our own bags before climbing into a tube to eat unidentifiable, reheated food from foil trays, trying to forget how Lost started before we can actually get on and enjoy our holiday.

Choosing the train over the plane might mean you arrive a little later but the journey is all part of the fun (and the view is of more than just never-ending white). You can take the biggest size shampoo you can find and no one will bat an eyelid and the only person who can lose your luggage is you.

Stay at home

That said, you don’t even need to leave the country. Having a Staycation couldn’t be more fashionable right now and there are thousands of places right on your doorstep. Have you explored your own city like you’ve explored Rome? Have you discovered its secrets and wandered its streets with open eyes? Britain is packed with history and we bet you haven’t seen the half of it.

Skip the red-eye

Staying Grounded isn’t just about cho-cho-choosing the train. It’s about realising you don’t have to haul yourself somewhere else at all. Business meetings in Bangkok, conferences in Canada and problem solving in Papua New Guinea. You don’t need to be there. At least not in body. By telecommuting instead of physically attending 860,000 meetings last year, BT saved a whopping £238 million and a sizeable 93,000 tonnes of CO2. That’s like flying from London to New York and back more than 45,000 times.

Video conferencing is the travel-free, carbon-free, trousers-free option. As long as you’ve brushed your hair, you can stay in bed wearing just your pants, chatting to your boss in America and it wont cost you, your business, or the planet a thing. Just remember not to stand up and expose your Monday underwear to your CEO.

This post has been bought to you by Do The Green Thing, a non-profit that tackles climate change with creativity. We’ve teamed up with Loco2 to inspire people to lead a greener life by making green living smart, sexy, fashionable and fun. And if we’ve made you smile and perhaps made you think, well, we’ll just go have a nice cuppa because that is our job done for the day.

Follow @dothegreenthingFollow @Loco2

In 2009 Loco2 consisted of one man, sitting in his dilapidated kitchen in Hackney, huddled over a struggling (Windows Vista) laptop, devoting all his spare time to developing a journey-planning website that had already consumed vast reserves of energy. That man was me, and the picture was bleak.

What I, and Loco2, needed was hope – a small ray of light to inject new energy into an idea that was in danger of fizzling out. That beacon of hope came in the form of a Saint Petersburg-based software engineer, who went by the name of Eugene Bolshakov…

Since then Eugene has become a founding member of the Loco2 team, and I’m delighted to say that soon he will be joining us in London with his wife Irina. But before that happens I’m going on an epic trip to visit Eugene in St Petersburg, via Moscow and his hometown, Astrakhan. It will be an epic adventure by train deep into the South of European Russia.

I’ll be travelling first by Eurostar to Brussels, and then on a night train from Cologne to Moscow. I plan on being a classic tourist, traipsing around red square,  visiting Lenin’s corpse and feeling dwarfed by the spires of the Kremlin.  I’ll meet Eugene in Moscow and we’ll travel south on another night train to the city of Astrakhan, where Eugene grew up. I’m intrigued to see a part of Russia that is well off the beaten track and to which I have never travelled before.

Finally we’ll travel back north to St Petersburg, where Eugene will show me a side of the city tourists don’t usually get to see (no pressure Eugene!).

Planning and booking the journey was a challenge, even for an “expert” like me, so I’ve written up the train booking process in the Engine Room and plan another blog soon about other aspects of planning, so that other people can learn from my experiences and share their own.

I’ll be blogging regularly while I’m away about the trains (naturally!) and my impressions of Russia, so stay tuned!

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Adding a map wherever you choose is as easy as embedding a Youtube video, and you don’t need any programming skills. Check out this short video to see how to share and embed your map, and enjoy Kate’s debut screencast!

Here’s how to get started:

Browse and search

Before posting your question or advice, check the existing topics to see what’s already there. We’ve organised things geographically, and by theme (e.g. night trains) so you easily find what you’re looking for. And if you can’t, just use the search box.

Signing up

To post a reply or start a new topic, you need to sign up for an account. You’ll need to pick a display name that others will see when you post.

After signing up you’ll need to click a confirmation link in your email so we know you’re not a spam robot.

Sign in and upload an avatar

When you’ve signed in you’ll see your username in place of the sign-in link in the top-right. Clicking on your username will take you to your account homepage.

You can choose an avatar or upload your own (if you skip this step we’ll assign you a random avatar). Your account page is also where you manage your subscriptions (more on that later).

Posting

If you want to create a new topic/question, rather than contribute to an existing discussion, click “Post new topic”. From the drop-down list, pick the forum with a subject most closely aligned with your question (don’t worry if you’re not sure, we can always move it later).

When picking your topic title, remember that this is what other forum users will see if they have a similar question in future, so the more specific the better. For example “How do I get to La Rochelle by train?” is better than “La Rochelle” or simply “Heeeelllp! I’m confused”. Or if you have advice to impart, “Strike – Trenitalia services April 23-26th” would be better than just “Italian strike”. You get the idea!

Use the formatting tips in the body of your post to add headings/lists etc, and if you’re familiar with Markdown syntax there are lots of other possibilities too like embedding images (and Loco2 journey maps!). You can even use HTML if you’re that way inclined.

When you’re happy with your post, check the box if you wish to be notified of responses to your message via email (you can unsubscribe at any time) and then hit ‘Start topic’. You can come back and edit your post at any time if you spot a mistake.

Replying to an existing topic

If you come across a conversation that interests you and want to join in the debate, simply type in the reply box at the bottom of the page, composing your post just as you would when beginning a thread. Then click “Post Reply” to make your response live.

Subscribing 

You can subscribe to receive email updates for topics or whole forums. Let’s say you’re something of a rail expert on Italy, you might consider subscribing to all Italy posts so that you get an email every time someone posts a new topic/question. You can also be more specific and subscribe to individual topics, even if you haven’t posted a reply to it.

You can unsubscribe from topics or forums in a number of ways – either by clicking the link in the notification emails, by signing into your account (see the screenshot below), or by clicking the green tick in the same place where you subscribed in the first place.

Learning more about other contributors

Clicking on username will take you to their profile page where you can see all the posts from a particular user. This can be helpful if you spot a user that has expertise in a particular area that you’re trying to learn about.

Feedback

If there is other functionality that you would like to see in the Engine Room, post it in the Feedback forum. We’re always continually improving and read and respond to all suggestions!

• Previously it was necessary to go through the entire purchasing process (including entering card details) every time you wanted to add a second train ticket to your purchase. This was really annoying.
• Due to a restriction of the Rail Europe booking system, journeys with more than two changes return no results (e.g. London-Budapest usually returns the Rail Fail message - ”Tickets are not currently available for this journey”). Now you can search for different legs separately and add each part of the journey to your basket (ask us in the Engine Room if you’re unsure about how to split your journey).
• Splitting your journey into several parts allows you to choose a different travel class for different parts of the journey, and can help you save money, as explained by the Man in Seat 61

Here’s how to use the basket:

1. Search for your first journey

2. Select your travel class

This is the step where you pick your seat or sleeper compartment if you’re travelling on a night train 

3. Enter passenger details (add more passengers if necessary)

Remember – all passengers will be travelling in the class you selected in the previous step

4. Click Confirm Tickets

You’ll now see the basket icon in the top-right of the page, with a number showing how many journeys are in your basket. Each journey can be held in the basket for 30 minutes before the reservation expires.

 5. You can now search for more trains and repeat the process to add additional journeys to your basket

When you’re done, check all the details of the journeys you’ve added to your basket, and choose a ticket delivery method. Note that if Print at Home or Collect at Station tickets are only available for some of the journeys in your basket, this option won’t be available. 

6. Finally, proceed to checkout and pay as normal

That’s it. We really welcome all feedback, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch either in the comments below, via the Engine Room or by some other means.

We shed a tear as we left behind the lovely Moo crew. They gave us good laughs, complimentary caffeination and a constant stream of free fruit and nut snacks. Now we’re sharing our new pad with Klein & Sons (animation/video maestros) and Level Business (company webifiers – in their own words).

Depending on who you believe, our new home at No.1 Rivington street either makes us achingly cool – thanks to our trendy hipster neighbours – or terribly clichéd, as start-ups go, due to our proximity to London’s so-called Silicon Roundabout. We’ll let you be the judge of where we sit on the scale of sartorial style icons and tech gurus, and meanwhile let you have a peek at some our cool new stuff.

Loco2 mugs

When forced with the decision of ordering either 5 or 72 mugs, a small office war broke out. Jamie wanted 72, but realising how much washing up that would mean, we opted for a limited edition of 5 instead. As supply/demand dictates, their scarcity has only made them all the more desirable, and word on the street is that a Loco2 mug is the only way for your tea to see and be seen. Here’s Kate modelling said mug.

Loco2 postcards

There is nothing quite like seeing your logo in print, so we were thrilled when the unboxing of our new eco-friendly Loco2 postcards became one of our most popular Facebook posts yet, proving that these little milestones mean as much to our early supporters as they do to us. If you’ve booked through Loco2 before or plan to book in the future, they’ll be coming to a postbox near to you very soon. But where are the gorgeous photographs taken? Answers on a postcard (or in the comments below!).

Loco2 stickers

Stickers are the pivotal element to any grassroots guerilla marketing campaign. With that in mind, we have have been indiscriminately sticker-ing surfaces everywhere. We’ve also uncovered the joys of “branding” kitchen paraphernalia – case in point, the Loco2 café press.

Train tracks galore

We’ve always had a Brio set in the office to remind us that it’s trains we’re waxing lyrical about and not, say, planes or Chelsea tractors. But recently we upgraded when Kate won a Hornby set for her winning train game suggestion in a Do the Green Thing contest. Plenty of train fun to keep us going until we realise our dreams of installing an office-wide train track to deliver our tea and cereal of a morning!

Well all this, along with other recent excitement makes us feel like a grown-up company, but it hasn’t dumbed down desires to stamp everything in sight with the Loco2 likeness. What do you think deserves the Loco2 treatment next? Let us know in the comments below.

It’s usually only possible to search for trains and fares up to 90 days, and very occasionally 92 days in advance of travel. Since airlines can offer best value tickets many months, sometimes even years in advance, it’s understandable that travellers are frustrated by the booking horizon for trains. There are various reasons why this is the case, most of them related to the glamorous world of data and interoperability, so there’s a long way to go until we achieve the lofty ideals of transport geeks everywhere. But in the meantime, we’re all terribly excited about advance bookings, if only for our summer holidays.

View the embedded maps below to get a flavour of what’s available or carry out your own search to find available destinations and fares.

Paris to Nice one-way £28

Paris to Milan one-way £23

Paris to Zurich one-way £23

If you’re not familiar with TGV routes in Europe, take a look at this helpful map of the main high-speed lines.

Image: by Aschaf reproduced with thanks under a Creative Commons license

Seat 61, as many visitors to the site will know, is the definitive rail guide, an extraordinary resource of train knowledge. Whether you’re looking for info on trains in Spain, Australia or Timbuktu chances are, the Man in Seat 61 can point you in the right direction.

With detailed information on just about every railway in the world, mostly drawn from first-hand experience, millions of people trust Seat 61 to offer honest and impartial advice. As avid train travellers ourselves, Loco2 knows that finding the right trains and fares can sometimes be a nightmare, so it’s great to be working with someone else who is dedicated to making things easier. Our association with Seat 61 is just the beginning of a string of exciting developments at Loco2 HQ, including the launch of our Rail Europe integration earlier this week.

Seat 61 and the Engine Room forums

The primary place you’ll see the Seat 61/Loco2 dream team in action is in the Engine Room forums. Community is the heart of Loco2 and the Engine Room is at the heart of the Loco2 community. Here, you can come and ask questions about booking European trains, share your experiences, and seek advice about planning a trip by rail. The Loco2 team and the Man in Seat 61 will be on hand to answer even the trickiest questions comprehensively and transparently, regardless of whether you can book on Loco2 or elsewhere.

As well as access to our resident train geeks, we’re designing the Engine Room to be as fun and engaging as possible. Right now, it does what it says on the tin – it’s a Q&A forum. But we’re working on lots of new features suggested by those of us who have supported us from the outset. Keep an eye out for embeddable journey plans, maps and images to name a few. If you’ve got a question then come and ask it, or even better, if you can teach us a thing or two then please be our guest! We’re open to suggestions about how we can improve what we’ve already built and we’re recruiting resident ticket inspectors (moderators) and trainspotters, so if you fancy yourself a bit of a rail expert we’d love you to hear from you.

Behind the scenes

Loco2 will also be picking Mark’s brain to help us master the idiosyncrasies of rail booking tools around Europe. As we grow Loco2 is determined to stay in touch with what makes customers tick, and, more importantly,  what ticks them off. By teaming up with Seat 61 we’ll maintain the objectivity we need to meet people’s expectations and achieve our own lofty aspirations. As long time fans of Seat 61, we’re delighted to have him on board to help us deliver on our promise to make Europe by train easier.

If you want to know more about the man behind the seat, check out part 1 of our interview. All board!

Seat61 has been featured in almost every national newspaper and is the primary resource for overland travellers… how did it all begin? (the name and the mission!)?

Back in 2001, I was looking for something to read on the train home and found a “Teach Yourself HTML” book. I tried it, got a webpage online, and the subject was obvious to me. It’s so easy to get to all over Europe by train, not just Paris, but Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Greece and Morocco but it’s difficult to find anyone to tell you how to do it, so I thought I’d fill that gap.

As for the name, Seat 61 is my favourite seat on Eurostar. I treat myself to Eurostar first class and I hate to find myself sitting next to a piece of wall, so I looked at the seating plan, worked out which seat was the best one and ticked all the boxes. It became tradition that I booked seat 61 on coaches 7, 8, 11 or 12 if I ever went somewhere significant. So if I go to Moscow via Vladivostok, Marrakech via Madrid or the Crimea via Warsaw that’s where you’ll find me.

Are you scared of flying? (We know you’re not!!)

I’ve actually done aerobatics in the RAF cadets and that’s proper flying so no I’m not scared! But one thing I am scared of is missing the journey… it’s the journey not just the destination that matters.

What I normally say is that flying on a budget airline is a nightmare, but easy to book, while travelling by train is wonderful but difficult to book. So if you put the effort in to arrange the journey, you’ll have a wonderful time, but if you chicken out, you miss out.

Did you ever imagine your site would become so popular?

No, I didn’t – it was a cry in the wilderness and I really didn’t think anyone would ever read it. So I was surprised when it started growing. One of the first things that happened was that I answered a question in a forum in 2001 and cited my site. That person turned out to be the travel editor of the Guardian, and my site become website of the week! I thought my friends were winding me up because no one else knew I had started it! When I found out, I burst out laughing in the veg section at Waitrose!

How do you feel about the media attention you’ve received?

Well first of all it’s quite fun. I’ve got to write for The Times, the Guardian and The Telegraph. And also, of course it’s positively evangelical, for getting your message across.  Writing an article for a big newspaper is a fantastic opportunity, which is really great.

We know Seat 61 is where you best like to sit on the train. But do you have a favourite route train or station in Europe?

That’s always a tricky one. If you like wine, you’re always in pursuit of new and exciting new flavours, and it’s like that with train routes and stations. Of course, I love Milan Centrale – I think it’s wonderful, and Madrid Atocha with it’s tropical gardens, and of course St Pancras is simply beautiful. Since the renovation, the exterior now matches the interior – when they opened it, Heathrow terminal 5 was busy being a shambles, and at exactly the same time, Eurostar opened the new St Pancras station, without a hitch, on time, on budget – I walked in on day one and it took my breath away.

Can you remember your earliest travel experience?

Oh yes! I went to the Isle of Wight ages 13 without anyone knowing. I saved up my pocket money, for several weeks at least, until I had amassed a fortune, so I could buy a ticket costing £2.73. I’m not quite sure why I opted for the Isle of Wight – perhaps I thought it would be my first “overseas” trip. I remember sitting on the ferry not realising it was only going “over there” and not crossing the channel – and that I shouldn’t really be doing this. [Did they send out a search party?]  I got home my mother was very worried. She put on a brave face but she was pretty upset with me.

Your site has almost million visitors a month and many travel queries by email that you diligently answer. What’s the most memorable correspondence you’ve had? Any questions you love or loathe to answer?

I think that correspondence is absolutely vital – for finding out how people think, what they’re interested in, what preconceptions they have. I can perceive the reactions and tailor what I say on my site to help other people. But there are surprises. For example, I didn’t think I’d have to deal with pets, but have had a slow trickle of enquiries about how you take your dog abroad, so I added a pets section. [Mark later joked that it would be easier to pretend to be blind and dress your dog as a guide dog than take a dog on the Eurostar, but no-one has tried this yet, as far as he knows]. I was also surprised by how many enquiries I receive from people dealing with claustrophobia, who ask whether a train window opens or is sealed.

I spend a lot of time going back to first principle with Americans. As Europeans we take a lot of things for granted and think it obvious that you walk out of a hotel with your bags, get on the train with your bags, sit with your bags, get off the train with your bags and off to the next hotel…with your bags. They can’t grasp it. They imagine you’ll have to put it on a baggage car, or check it in, or give it to somebody or put labels on it, or something and you know it’s totally simple. If all you’ve ever done is fly then it’s what you’re used to.

I suppose I get a bit bored of answering people who are looking beyond the 90-day booking horizon and wondering why they can’t book any trains. The other ones I hate are when people are so vague about where they want to go. They expect me to write a complete essay on “Options for your European Trip.” and I can’t crank the handle and decide for them where they would like to go on their day trip.

I love answering the ones where people are having a huge problem and I can tell them how to get over it. The principle of what I do is point people in the right direction and help them through the glitches and problems but it’s a self-help thing, I can’t take a million of them through the live booking process, I’d be in trouble! There is a lot of information to take in and sometimes people just get overwhelmed and reach for the “Contact me” button. It’s a difficult balance to present a simple clear message – these are your train times, this is what it costs, this is who your contact to buy a ticket, but also provide enough detail to get people over the problems they will encounter, to correct their misconceptions and answer all their queries.

What would you say to convince someone to take the train instead of the plane? Do you think there is the one change that would persuade more people to travel overland?

Well I think a lot of people already want to take the train are put off or fail because of the lack of information or problems with booking. So I’ve been trying to sort the information and help people through the booking problems. With any issue you go for the low hanging fruit, you’re not asking to persuade the die hard airline passenger to take the train… you take people who are actually fed up with the stresses of modern flying and say now its easy to take the train as an alternative. Certainly I think Easyjet and Ryanair are doing a sterling job of forcing people… ahem, persuading people to try alternatives, and they’re getting more stressful and more expensive. The people who contact me are fed up of the stress of flying and they want to reduce their carbon footprint. I don’t know if it’s 80/20, 20/80, or 50/50 but they cite those two things.

The train can be expensive compared to the plane though, right? And it takes longer! [Editor’s note: this is only meant to be gently provocative – it’s the main response we get to the suggestion of train travel over air travel by non-supporters]

I think people now realise what with airport security that a 1hr flight can mean a 4 or 5 hour journey. They realise that the £1 flights is actually going to cost them far more when all the extra costs are added on by the airlines, in desperation to cope with the rising fuel prices without changing their attractive advertising. What we need to show them is that there are also budget prices on the rails as well. People think that it’s expensive but actually London to Paris is £39, London to Switzerland can be as little as €25.

We also need to show that it doesn’t take weeks. I left Switzerland at 4.30 in the afternoon, was back in Paris at 7.30pm, back in London at half ten at night and back in Aylesbury before midnight.

The Loco2 Engine Room is brought to you in association with the Man in Seat 61. It’s a place for train travellers to meet up, share their experiences and ask each other questions. The Loco2 team and The Man in Seat 61 will be on hand to answer your trickiest quandaries and help make sense of the complexities of booking European rail. ­

Images: Madrid Atocha courtesy of Kate, and Through the Window by Potyike, reproduced with thanks under a Creative Commons license

It might not sound like much, but considering our humble beginnings, everyone at Loco2 HQ is excited to be the first UK website to offer Rail Europe tickets direct to customers. The fact that we’ve successfully integrated with a SOAP API, using an asynchronous event loop, is probably double-dutch to most of you, so you’ll just have to take our word for it when we say it’s great!

In layman’s terms (who are you calling a layman?!), the integration with Rail Europe, who are a subsidiary of the French rail company, SNCF, means Loco2 is now able to offer pain-free search and booking for dozens of European countries. It’s not the be all and end all, but it’s definitely a move in the right direction. This is a big step towards Loco2′s ultimate goal of making it as easy to book a train as a short-haul flight, so we hope you’re pleased with the developments you’ll see onsite.

For those of you who’ve used the site since we first launched, this development allows us to take a number of issues you identified and smash them with a big novelty interent hammer:

1. Faster search results

Waiting for search results to load often took more than 60 seconds on the previous Loco2 site. With all the distractions of the internet today, this was way too long…It now only takes 15-20 seconds for results to load. That’s right, we’ve timed it, over and over again.

2. Print at home tickets

Tickets bought through Loco2 used to be sent by snail-mail. With everyone used to booking e-tickets with airlines, the lack of this option for trains made the booking/ticket delivery process seem over-complicated. We now offer print-at-home tickets for hundreds of destinations. No more postage costs or fears of tickets lost in the post.

3. Your tickets available

Previously, search results often included trains that couldn’t be booked online. Yes, the route maps are pretty, but you told us that not being able to purchase them was frustrating. Now only trains that can be booked appear in your search results.

What’s next?

We’re really excited about the first two announcements. The last one is a bit more complicated, because we know that sometimes it’s useful to see which trains are running, even if they can’t be booked. So next we’re looking at ways to bring the timetables back in, but without detrimentally affecting the booking experience.

This is the most exciting thing that has happened to Loco2 since we first launched our beta site back in Feburary last year (including the time when set up a toy train track around Jamie’s desk) but it’s far from the end of the road. We will continue to improve European rail booking until everyone is ecstatically happy, and no-one ever feels the need to fly in Europe again. Even Richard Branson (and we all know he loves flying).

Image: by Presty, reproduced with thanks under a Creative Commons NY-BC 2.0 license

What are benefits?

• Print at home tickets are *FREE* to print meaning zero delivery costs to pay. It’s not much but it we know you love a discount.

• Print at home tickets can be purchased on short notice and printed on the spot – with an ordinary printer, on A4 paper. This means no more waiting for the postman to deliver your tickets, or fearing a postal strike the week before your holiday. And if you’re feeling spontaneous you can make bookings any time before departure.

• Print at home tickets eliminate the risk of your tickets getting lost in the post, which means you won’t have to worry about incurring fees for reissuing lost or stolen tickets. And if you lose them yourself, well, you can just print them again.

• As well as benefitting you, print at home tickets are better for our planet. We don’t know the exact carbon footprint of a letter but we think that less is more when it comes to paper. Low-CO2, hooray!

How does it work?

1. Search for trains, and select the dates, times and tickets you require. Click choose passengers.

2. Once you’ve entered your name you’ll be prompted to enter your date of birth. We need this to verify your identity when you travel. If the ticket you’ve chosen isn’t eligible for print at home tickets, you won’t be asked for your date of birth.

4. After you’ve confirmed your tickets and double-checked the reservation details, you should select print at home from the drop down menu. You’ll also see postal tickets, or collect at station tickets if that’s what you prefer. If you select print at home or collect at station tickets, the total price of your purchase will show zero for delivery costs

6. Once you’ve completed your booking a confirmation screen will appear. It will include a link to the pdf of your tickets so you can print them immediately. We’ll also send an email to confirm your booking and a link to your ticket if you’d prefer to print them another time. The link won’t expire so you can print your tickets at any point before your trip.

7. Your ticket will look something like this. Please check the details carefully and make sure that your name and the barcode have printed clearly.

8. You print your ticket on a piece of A4 paper, have a cup of tea and give yourself a big pat on the back because you are your own travel agent. Well done everyone.

What about paperless tickets?

If you have a high resolution phone you don’t necessarily have to print your tickets out, as some barcode readers can read directly from your screen. This comes with a word of warning though as paperless tickets aren’t always accepted and you are bound by the terms of the specific rail operator. We’ve been advised that most railways officially require that Internet Tickets are printed, not just displayed on a computer or phone screen.

If you intend not to print your ticket, you should check the conditions of carriage of the specific railway. Unfortunately, these are usually only available in the native language of the railway company. For example the French railway states that tickets are required to be printed on A4 paper prior to travel, and the Germans too state that that tickets must be printed on white paper in size A4

Some railways offer “mobile tickets” as well, which can be displayed on phone screens either with apps provided by the railway company, or as a code that is sent to the phone by SMS oder MMS.

Available destinations

We don’t have print at home tickets for every destination yet, but to give you a taster of what we’ve got lined up, e- tickets are now available for the following:

• Eurostar tickets from London to Paris, Brussels, Lille and Calais, not to mention any station in Belgium.
• Direct ski train destinations including Bourg St Maurice and Moûtiers
• TGV services from Paris to the south of France and destinations in Switzerland and Italy
• Thalys service to Cologne, Antwerp and Amsterdam

A full list of routes where we can offer print at home tickets is available here.  We can’t always guarantee their availability, but we will always display the option to print your own tickets if they’re available for the route and fare you’ve searched for.

Loco2 is a young, fun, start-up company focused on making it easier to plan and book European train journeys. Our mission is to make booking trains as easy as booking flights to try to reduce the carbon emissions produced by the travel industry.

This is an opportunity for an enthusiastic and intelligent individual to join us in our east London office (which has not one, but two functioning toy train sets, and a roof terrace!). You will help us build a community of users and generate buzz around our new website, and in return you will learn a lot about trains, effective online communication, and how sophisticated websites are built…

What you’ll be helping with

• Writing content and sourcing images for the blog. This is a great opportunity for an aspiring writer to hone their style and get their work published.
• Researching festivals and other events that can be reached by train, and helping to arrange affiliate partnerships. Lots of room for initiative here.
• Interacting with members of the Loco2 community in our forums and on Facebook/Twitter
• Commenting on relevant blogs and articles to help get the word out about Loco2
• Using online software to design and send out newsletters
• Organising user testing to ensure Loco2’s booking tool keeps improving

What you’ll learn about

• How to write concisely and adjust your writing style for different audiences
• How to use the blogging/publishing tool WordPress
• How to communicate successfully online with users and potential customers
• How to conduct unbiased user testing and effectively analyse the user experience
• How to design attractive web pages and marketing material
• How to design and code using basic HTML and CSS (optional)
• Understanding the inner workings of a technology start-up and the fundamentals of an agile software development process

Our commitment to you

Loco2 doesn’t believe in something for nothing and we want you to feel like a valued member of the team. We believe that an internship, even an unpaid one, should be a valuable part of your career progression. We have designed our internship to be interesting and useful, so that when you leave you’ll have a demonstrable set of skills that will make you more attractive to your next employer.

Duration and working hours

This is a three-month placement starting in April 2012. Working hours each week can be flexible to fit around other commitments, and ultimately it’s a voluntary position so you can come and go as you please. But for you to get the most out of your time with us, we’d like a minimum commitment of 3 days/week. Our working day is from 9.30am-6pm with an hour for lunch.

Location

There is a desk available at our offices and we’d love to have you here. We’re located at 1 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3DT

We can be flexible about home-working if desired/convenient once you’ve learnt the ropes.

Legal situation and expenses

This is a volunteer/unpaid position with no contractual relationship between the intern and Loco2. We can pay expenses of £10/day to contribute to lunch/travel.

How to apply

To apply please send your CV and a covering email to anila@loco2.com. The deadline for applications is 16th April 2012.

A bit about Jon

Jon has been coding professionally since he was 16. He’s worked with a diverse range of companies, from agencies like Torchbox, giants like the BBC, and plucky start-ups like Conductrus. He took some time out from his professional work to get a degree in Computer Science from Oxford University, graduating in 2010.

A long-time evangelist for the popular open source framework, Ruby on Rails, in 2011 Jon was invited onto the core team who maintain and improve the rails codebase. Jon will be continuing his work on rails whilst working at Loco2, as well as contributing to/releasing other open source projects (such as Loco2′s aptly-named library, lolSoap).

Ruby on RAILS (get it?)

In addition to his passion for open source software, like most of the team Jon has a keen personal belief in Loco2′s mission to reduce unnecessary emissions from short haul flights. So when he was invited to speak at Rubyshift in Kiev in October last year, he saw it as an opportunity to show that it’s possible to travel really long distances by train, and maintain a low carbon footprint in the process (perhaps more importantly because of the pun potential, it also meant that Jon was able to spend time coding Ruby on Rails, on rails!).

About his epic trip to the Ukraine, Jon said

“It was a great opportunity to explore some unknown cities in Eastern Europe, but most of all it was a complete pain to plan and book, much like with other international train journeys I’ve been on. As someone who has directly experienced frustration with existing rail booking websites, I’m excited to be working with Loco2 so that we can nail this problem.“

You’ll be hearing a lot more from Jon in the future as he and the team keep our technical development on the right track. Welcome aboard!

However you spin it the train and the bike were simply made to go together, like a nice cup of tea and a dunking biscuit. To celebrate this joyful union we’ve teamed up with SwissRetreat to bring you some top tips for taking your bike on the train, and a clutch of two-wheeled spring breaks in Europe to get your geared up for your next trip.

5 Top Tips for Travelling With Your Bike By Train

1. Always ask the train conductor which end of the platform the bike carriage or luggage compartment is, getting to the right end of the platform with your gear will make it less stressful for everyone!

2. A collapsible soft bike carry bag can help you travel on some trains for free as it will just be treated as another piece of luggage that you can take into the main carriage.

3.Take two bungee cords with simple hooks on the end, which are great for fixing a bike in place in a cycle rack, particularly when using mountain cog railways where the steep gradients can result in bikes falling out of position.

4.Take two locks – better to be safe then sorry. One long chain lock with a padlock and a smaller D lock should suffice.

5. Take a few pictures of your bike including any distinguishing features and note down the frame number (underneath the bike directly beneath the bottom bracket where the pedals go round) since you’ll need this if it gets stolen.

For more detailed information about taking your bicycle on European trains, and particularly on Eurostar, check out the Loco2 Engine Room to read other people’s tips, or submit your own.

Italy – The Home of the Bicycle

Italy has a rich heritage in cycling and many of the worlds most famous and beautiful bicycles are made in Northern Italy. Every cycling fan should add a cycling pilgrimage in Northern Italy to their “to do” list.

The Dolomites mountain range is stunning and each year sees a cycling festival spring up around the Maratona dles Dolomites, voted the 3rd favourite international cycling event by readers of Cycling Weekly. If a road race isn’t your scene there are plenty of other tracks, climbs and winding descents to explore throughout spring and summer.

Catching a train to Bruneck-Brunico leaves you just a short ride from the charming town of Corvara in the South Tyrol. From your base in Corvara several one or two day circuits can be ridden including challenging yourself on the Passo Giau and Passo Valparola that feature each year in the Maratona dles Dolomites.

Nearest train station: Bruneck-Brunico

The Pyrenees – Cycling and Cerveza

Cycling in the Pyrenees is a challenge but the rewards more than compensate for your aching limbs. The area is steeped in history when it comes to cycling, with many professional bike racers of the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España having pedalled these paths.

If you fancy following in their tracks a weekend cycling tour from Pau in France to Huesca in Spain could include the Col du Marie Blanque (14 appearances in the Tour de France) and the Col du Portalet on the border between France and Spain. If you time your trip properly you might even bump into some of the pros en route.

For those of us not chasing a yellow jersey, the area offers many hundreds of miles of excellent track to explore. Be prepared for steep climbs and extraordinary views. Don’t forget to reward yourself with a well-earned cold Spanish beer after a couple of challenging days in the saddle.

Nearest train stations: Pau in France | Huesca in Spain.

Switzerland – Land of Chocolate, Cheese and Wine

If the Dolomites and Pyrenees sound a bit much then Switzerland offers a gentler cycling experience.

Switzerland is famous for its holey Gruyère cheese and sumptuous chocolate but few people know that it’s a fantastic wine-growing region too. A cycling tour along the shores of Lake Geneva (known as Lac Léman locally) will take you through the stunning scenery of the UNESCO World Heritage Lavaux Vineyards and gives you ample opportunity to dismount and appreciate your surroundings.

The journey from Geneva to Montreux can be broken up over a long weekend with stays in the lakeside towns of Morges and Lausanne, allowing you to taste some wine en route!

Nearest train stations: Lausanne | Morges

To find out more about train travel in Switzerland, check out the Loco2 Engine Room forum.

Have you had a European train and bike adventure? Got any good tips? Share your bike travel tips and cycling adventures in the comments below:

Tom Eeles is Directeur Sportif at SwissRetreat Cycling Tours and is working with Loco2 to bring you some of the best cycle rides in Europe that can be combined with beautiful train rides. Make sure you don’t miss out on the next adventure on Twitter.

Follow @swissretreat Follow @Loco2

Images: Main image ‘Vertigo’ by will_cylist reproduced with thanks under a Creative Commons BY-NC 2.0 licence, ‘Dolomites’ by Freddy Planinschek, ‘Pyrenees’ by Quebrantahuesos and ‘Lavaux’ by SwissRetreat all gratefully used with permission.

In 2009 this Chanel advert, complete with the enchanting soundtrack of Billie Holiday’s – I’m a Fool to Want You, proved that train travel – especially on board mahogany clad sleeper trains – is glamour on rails.

This year, Louis Vuitton have hopped on the bandwagon by building an entire station and train on the set of their Autumn/Winter collection at Paris Fashion week. They’ve not only built their own full size model railway but have tailored their whole collection to celebrating the romance of train travel – including flat suitcases that easily stack in luggage racks. Finally, designer luggage we can all enjoy…

Half a loaded shotgun

A partial shotgun, along with ammunition was discovered on a train between London and Glasgow. Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it) the firearms licence was also found, meaning the weapon was traced back to its rightful, gun-totin’ owner.

A dead octopus

Sadly no one called up to be reunited with this poor sucker, so we’ll never know just what possessed the owner to pack him into a holdall and take him on a train holiday.

Holly the cat

One poor moggy got more than she bargained for when her owner accidentally left her behind when alighting the train. Luckily they still had the wherewithal to forget the cat’s bowl and litter tray as well so she could go about her daily business until owner and kitty were happily reunited!

£30K

Briefcases full of stacks of cold hard cash are the sorts of things commonly associated with mafia movies. So imagine the surprise when someone found £30,000 in used banknotes at Edinburgh’s Waverley station. No-one came forward to collect it, so sounds like an abandoned real-life gangster moment!

Snakes on a train

If it sounds like a low-rent sequel to the well-known action-thriller of a similar name, that’s because it bears some striking similarities. First, in Vietnam, an unsuspecting ticket inspector got the fright of his life while checking passenger luggage when he found not one but 14 King Cobras staring right back at him. In a separate incident in Poland, passengers on a train between Gdynia and Zakopane clambered to the top of their seats when an escaped 3.5ft snake slithered it’s way into their carriage. A further boxed (but alive) snake was found and both taken to a nearby vet. No snakes were harmed, but we’re not sure if the same can be said of the poor commuters…

A wedding dress

Perhaps she was caught up in the excitement of her impending wedding, but we think this bride-to-be would have been anything but excited when she realised she’d left her wedding dress on the train.

A shopping trolley

One enterprising and or lazy young person decided that rather than carry their shopping home, they might as well just take the trolley on the train.

Stuffed animals

It’s hard to believe someone could take a puffer fish or stuffed fox on the Tube and then forget it, but sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction as they say. Other strange items left on the tube include a park bench, WWII gas masks, a gorilla suit, a home vasectomy kit and a pair of breast implants. What are people like?

And finally – the one that got away – a horse

It seems strange to want to take a horse on a train when you can ride it? The horse never actually made it onto the train…  authorities stopped him (well, him and his owner) as they attempted to board, but had they, it would have made quite a sight to behold.

What’s the strangest thing you have ever found in your luggage rack? Ever left something important behind on the train? Let us know via the comments below.

Images by kitkatherine, Images_of_Money and AP reproduced with thanks under a CC Attribution license 2.0

A night traipsing around museums isn’t the first thing you think of when planning a wild evening on the town. But Brussels will shake up all those misconceptions with this year’s annual Museum Night Fever. On March 3, 24 museums in Brussels will keep their doors open until the wee hours of the morning. And the event is more than just wandering around exhibitions – each venue hosts something a little bit different, from concerts and DJs to video installations and workshops. For anyone still standing, there’s even an after party at Fuse&You nightclub. Join a poetic flash mob at the Museum of the City of Brussels, or make some music on stage at the Henri Le Boeuf Hall. Make sure you don’t miss the Let the DJ Save Your Life event at the Museum of Armed Forces, where you can have a little boogie to some electro-pop. There will even the opportunity to try out body drumming (yes, you read that right) and traditional African dance at the Cinquantenaire Museum, or watch a bit of cabaret at the Ixelles Museum. If you’d just rather chill out with some peace and quiet though, pop along to the silent mob happening at the Museum of Ancient Art! Whatever you’re into, this will be a night to remember! Check out a few of the performances from last year in this video…

Use our European train planner to search for trains to Brussels.

Munich’s Secret Beer Festival

Move over Oktoberfest – there’s a new beer festival in town and it’s  bigger, better and stronger than ever. Munich’s Starkbierzeit or the Strong Beer Festival will be hosted at Paulaner am Nockherberg from March 9 this year, with 3 solid weeks of beer swigging and ale glugging all in the name of fun. Pubs, restaurants, beer halls and breweries host their own Starkbierfests across the city, serving strong beers that are traditionally drunk over the Lent period. The idea behind this festival is to leave the chilly memories of winter behind and celebrate the arrival of Spring. Just a quick word of warning: If you’re not used to German beers, they call them strong for a reason… so pace yourself if you want to remember any of the frivolities!

Use Loco2′s European train planner to search for trains to Munich.

Treat your mum to a bit of classical Paris

From electro-museum nights and secret beer festivals to something a little more sophisticated. Why not treat your mummy dearest to a Mother’s Day she won’t forget? Paris may be more well-known as a city for lovers, but show your mum how much you adore her this year with tickets to La Bayadère at the National de Paris. Marius Petipa’s wonderful ballet tells the tale of the moving love story between Nikiya and Solor the warrior. Rudolf Nureyev gave the story a new lease of life in 1992, and it’s one of the most popular ballets in Paris. So don your evening wear, grab your opera glasses and lose yourself in this beautiful production.

Here’s a taster of what to expect…

Use our European train planner to search for trains to Paris.

Emily Rycroft is Editorial Assistant at Global Cool and is collaborating with Loco2 on a series of Traincation themed posts. So be sure to come back next month, and in the meantime, follow the conversation on Twitter:

Follow @traincationFollow @Loco2

Images by Museum Night Fever ScarletGreen and FestivalPig.com reproduced with thanks under a CC Attribution license 2.0

In England, Shrove Tuesday no longer carries the religious significance it once did. Gone is the symbolic pantry-clearing tradition of a Christian household, and in its place an excuse for gluttony. But let us not dwell on England’s failures, but instead look across the waters to our old enemy to see what has become of their traditional dish. In central Paris few corners are without crêperies, and few streets without the sweet smell of butter sizzling so what better place to begin the search for the most tempting pancake.

Breizh Cafe

In an area fraught with tourist traps the Breizh Cafe on Paris’ Rue Vielle du Temple is a refreshing break from the norm. With a proudly simple menu and exceptional ingredients, founder Bertrand Larcher has made it his life’s work to create an atmosphere that creates a “new kind of crepe experience”. With restaurants in his home town of Cancale, two in Paris and one in Tokyo, the concept seems to be proving itself. Come here for the classics: a galette with ham and cheese cooked in front of your eyes on a billig, and if you’re feeling brave sample a lait ribot – a drink of lightly sparkling fermented milk.

90 Rue Vieille du Temple | Open Weds-Sat: 12pm-11pm, Sun: 12pm-10pm, Closed Monday and Tuesday

L’Avant Comptoir

If you’re more comfortable eating your crêpes on the roadside, but want a reliable standard, opt for l’Avant-Comptoir on Carrefour de l’Odéon. With a crêperie in the front, and wine bar at the back, it’s a case of standing room only at this popular bistro. Open every day, and by far the most reasonably priced of our Parisian trio, the pancakes at this establishment will do exactly what you’d expect.

3 Carrefour de l’Odéon | Open every day

Compagnie de Bretagne

The Compagnie de Bretagne, just south of the Île de la Cité, boasts traditional Bréton ingredients and artisan ciders, bringing a little luxury to the genre. With fillings ranging from rhubard compote, and caramelised salt butter to galettes bursting with lobster, this crêperie is nothing if not creative. In chic monochromatic decor, you can enjoy an interesting take on the traditional.

9, rue de l’Ecole de Médecine | Open every day, noon-midnight

To find out more on train travel in France, check out the Loco2 Engine Room forum.

To book trains, use our European Train Planner. Happy railing!

Follow @Loco2

Images: Main image ‘Crepe’, by Dyamsaki reproduced with thanks under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA Licence