Entire steps into the rail breach

RAIL Europe’s Australian and New Zealand operations, which also traded for many years locally under the highly respected Rail Plus brand, have been another victim of COVID-19, with the business set to undergo a significant downsizing including the closure of its Great Train Journeys division. Most of the team have now left the company, with chief Richard Leonard confirming that the much smaller business “won’t be able to offer all customer service channels to every single agent”.

Rail Europe has had a chequered career in recent years, particularly with a somewhat confused brand message when it switched to the Rail Europe moniker while continuing to assure the industry that “we sell more than just Europe”. However that’s all over now, with the business transitioning to a Paris-based booking platform at the end of this month. However Entire Travel Group’s Greg

Mccallum, who worked at Rail Plus for more than a decade from the early 2000s, has seen a major opportunity with the Rail Europe changes and launched a new Great Train Journeys division within the Entire business. Mccallum said the new program would be introduced to agents as the industry emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.