The Guardian has become the first national newspaper to offer European train booking with the launch of its new travel tool, Guardian Trains.
The newspaper has partnered with European rail travel website Loco2 to design the new service, which aims to make it easy for readers to plan and book rail tickets to thousands of destinations across Europe.
Loco2 is designed to allow customers to book tickets for their complete journey without the need to switch between websites of different operators and since going live in April 2012, the British start up has secured partnerships with SNCF and Deutsche Bahn (DB) – two of Europe’s largest train service providers.
Loco2 managing director Jamie Andrews said: “Guardian readers are a key target audience for Loco2, and so we are delighted to be partnering with an organisation whose fantastic content and commitment to sustainability we have long-admired.”
A carbon footprint calculator also shows passengers the emissions savings they are making by taking the train over the plane.
“Guardian and Observer readers have always been strong advocates of environmentally friendly travel and are also among the most frequent short haul cultural explorers,” said head of consumer offers at The Guardian, Jo Burns.
“This online service makes it so straightforward to plan and book international rail journeys, we jumped at the chance to work with this innovative company and hope our readers find Guardian Trains inspirational and economical.”
