GERMAN holiday group Tui has announced plans to expand its rail offer by introducing up to 10 new services to meet growing demand for sustainable travel options.
Since July, the Tui City Express from Amsterdam to Prague has included stops in the German cities of Osnabrück and Hanover. Passengers on the service are offered four comfort options, ranging from a shared six-person compartment with facing bench seats and wall-mounted beds, through to a dedicated Comfort Private compartment, which has a wash basin and steward service. Passengers can also order extras such as breakfast boxes or bed linen.
The 16-car train is operated by Dutch company GreenCityTrip, and has 700 beds, with prices starting at €140.
Tui’s head of package, city and car travel, Ms Nicole Sohnrey, says the company is seeing a high level of interest in city breaks from clients and has expanded its offer to include hotels in Amsterdam, Vienna and Prague, with all these destinations “ideally suited for sustainable travel by rail.”
Tui says it will also be expanding the Tui Ski Express service that runs weekly from Amsterdam and Utrecht to Austria.
The Tui Ski Express operates weekly from December 23 to March 12. The train splits at Wörgl, Austria, with one half continuing to Tyrol and Vorarlberg with the other running to winter sports resorts in the Salzburg region. From December, the service will also stop at Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz and Frankfurt in Germany.
“We started last winter with a pilot test at Tui in the Netherlands to offer our guests an additional travel option with holiday trains,” says Tui group CEO, Mr Sebastian Ebel. “Our experience shows that train travel is particularly interesting in connection with city trips.
“In the winter months, rail travel to the mountains is an attractive alternative to the car. We are already in talks with other providers in the market to assess the potential for additional routes to Austria, Italy, France or Scandinavia.”
