Great Britain is set to remain in the Interrail and Eurail schemes following a huge public backlash.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) – which brings together the companies that operate across Britain’s railways – announced today that it has reached an agreement with Eurail after renewing talks.
It comes after LNER – the government-backed franchise which runs services along the East Coast – shunned the RDG’s decision.
In a tweet the company said: “We have listened to our customers and decided to stay with Eurail to allow customers to continue enjoying long distance travel on our East Coast route.”
And the RDG followed suit shortly after.
We are pleased to be able to tell passengers that we have reached agreement and will be remaining part of both the Interrail and Eurail passes.
— Rail Delivery Group (@RailDeliveryGrp) August 8, 2019
There had been an air of palpable discontent following the decision to remove Britain from the rail scheme after almost 50 years.
SNP MEP Alyn Smith described the move as “so sad”, writing on Twitter that: “Leaving the EU is not one event, it’s a series of small ways in which the lives of people in the UK will be more difficult, smaller and meaner.”
Although the move is the decision of the British train operators and is not down to Brexit, TSSA General Secretary, Manuel Cortes said it was endemic of the “small minded nonsense” that has Government’s Brexit fingerprints all over it.
Seems like:
— Jon Stone (@joncstone) August 8, 2019
– UK rail firms wanted to stay in Interrail but leave EUrail, so they could sell more profitable BritRail pass
– EUrail says no, they come as a pair
– UK says ‘lol ok kick us out if u dare’
– EUrail kicks them out
– UK comes crawling backhttps://t.co/1CtufMNzUX
