Mapping Train Connections

For ecological reasons I haven't taken a flight in over 30 years. Consequently I have probably spent many, many hours traveling across Europe by train. One of my retirement plans is to spend winters in Southern Italy. I have begun therefore to research how best to travel by train to southern Italy.

According to TrainConnections the best plan is probably to break the journey into two - to take one day to travel from London to Milan, spend the night in Milan, and then spend a second day traveling down to southern Italy. In total the journey takes nearly 25 hours on four different trains, so it makes sense to split the journey up into at least two different days.

TrainConnections is an interactive map which searches thousands of train routes to help you find and plan a European train journey. Enter your starting point and your desired destination and the map will calculate and visualize the best train route for your journey. It also provides a detailed itinerary for the journey outlining the length of each train, required station transfers, and the total journey time.

Direct Train Connections is another very useful map if you are planning a train journey in Europe. This interactive map can show you all the locations you can reach by direct train from any station in Europe, which is fantastic if you want to plan a journey which only involves one train. Select a train station on the Direct Train Connections map and you can instantly view all the other stations in Europe which you can reach without having to change trains.

This week I fancy getting out of London to escape the city heat. By selecting Stratford Station on Direct Train Connections I can see all the stations that I can reach by direct train from East London. These include a number of possible seaside destinations on the Kent and Essex coast. There is also a direct train to the Norfolk city of Norwich, which appears to be the longest journey I can take from Stratford without having to change trains. 

When taking very long train journeys across Europe I often prefer to take a night-train. When planning a romantic sleeper train you can refer to the Good Morning Europe, Night Train Map to discover which night-train routes are currently in operation across Europe. 

Büro des Präsidenten's interactive map is based on their own renowned night-train poster of Europe. Major cities on this map are marked with numbered night-train routes. If you hover over these numbers on the interactive map then the selected route is highlighted on the map, allowing you to quickly see where you can travel to in Europe by sleeper train from that city