Europe’s best railways: we’ve done the maths

Chris Moss ranks and rates the continent’s train networks – whether brilliant or beleaguered – and declares a winner

All travellers like trains. European travellers love them. An InterRail trip is a rite of passage that stays in the memory. The Eurostar is to millennials what boat trains were for Gen X: a portal to an entire continent. European railway stations – usually prominent, often palatial – suggest history and romance. They feature in classic films, novels and music. In a climate-conscious world, railways remain the greenest alternative. They are safer and cause less stress than driving. For anyone keen to see the world, is there any better place than beside a train window?

With more than half of travellers now considering rail “a serious alternative” to flying (according to Aito’s recent annual Travel Insights Survey), and the flight-free movement gaining greater traction with every passing season, it seems building our holidays around the continent’s railways has rarely been more in-vogue.

But where to go? It’s no secret that travelling by train in Europe can be an expensive and confusing business ( just booking can feel like an obstacle course, thanks to “dynamic pricing” and a vast array of categories and pseudo-offers), not to mention being blighted by the strikes and disruption that tend to plague certain regions.

With this in mind, we have taken the rail networks of Europe’s 15 largest (open) countries to task, rating each on the factors that matter most. Read on to find out which ailing national networks are best avoided (and those with a highlight that is nevertheless worth the hassle) and which are the finest options for a successful railbased escape – whether it be your next spring city break, or a glorious odyssey snaking from coast to countryside over the course of several weeks.

iiDramatic: a train crosses the Landwasser viaduct in Switzerland

iThe route skimming Lake Balaton in Hungary, ranked 10th in our survey