Interrailing, to many people a hark back to the days of their youth, as the activity of hopping on trains around Europe with just a paper ticket and backpack became a rite of passage. It remains very much the same today, and is certainly alive and well, with around 250,000 passes being sold each year. Interrail is part of the Eurail Group and is based in Utrecht in the Netherlands, but it is Leeds that has become the unexpected hub for Interrail innovation. Two Leeds businesses, Euroventure and Interrail Planner, have been shaking things up on the Interrail scene for the past couple of years and now they’re working together to innovate even further
Leeds based Euroventure was set up in 2012 by brothers Philip Kevin Cabra Netherton. Since launch, it has grown in size and built a great team of staff, while becoming a leader in Interrail trip packages. In 2017, Euroventure turned over £1 million from over 1000 passengers. The company recently overhauled their website, and it now enables customers to directly book set packages online.
Interrail Planner was founded by two University of Bath students in 2013, Jack Cowell and Jack MacHugh. Interrail Planner provides an innovative web application for free, allowing do-it-yourself Interrail trip planning – the first tool of its kind. The planning application was developed in partnership with Dino Vidakovic and his team of web developers at Crionis, based in Croatia. Since launching the website in early 2016, over 22,000 prospective Interrailers have created plans on Interrail Planner.
However, the Interrail innovation goes beyond those core businesses
● Interrail Planner recently launched a second website, Eurail Planner , for Eurail trips (the Interrail equivalent for non-Europeans).
● Interrail Planner created Buckles, the first ever Interrail chatbot, to help customers choose their Interrail pass and more.
● Euroventure launched the first guided group tours for Interrail on the market.
● Euroventure set up Railbug to offer a train reservation service, which addresses the complexity of making seat reservations for your Interrail pass journeys.
Now, Interrail Planner and Euroventure are collaborating on a new idea: Interrailers who create plans on Interrail Planner will be able to submit those plans to Euroventure, in order to book a completely custom and personalised trip package. A pilot is currently running, which could lead to a more thorough integration of Euroventure’s package offering into Interrail Planner.
Interrailers of the not-so-distant future could find that going Interrailing is as simple as creating and booking a custom itinerary all in one go!
