For decades, North American travelers had the idea of touring Europe with a Eurail Pass. If you go looking for one now, you won’t find it. In September 2026, Eurail retired its brand name worldwide. Every rail pass and booking portal unified under a single name: Interrail.
The trains and routes didn’t change. The company behind them didn’t change either. But if you’re reading older guidebooks or listening to back-catalog podcasts, the disappearance of the Eurail name causes confusion. Here’s how the unified system works and why our earlier podcast episodes sound a little dated.
What happened to Eurail?
From 1959 until late 2026, the European pass system ran two parallel storefronts for the exact same track network. Interrail was for European residents. Eurail was for everyone else.
Behind the counter, it was always the same outfit: Eurail B.V., operating out of Utrecht. They negotiated tariffs with national rail operators and ran the portal that issues the digital passes. The only real difference was which URL took your payment.
Running two brands made sense in the 1990s when thick paper passes had to be watermarked and shipped across an ocean to North American mailboxes, but in an era where every traveler yanks out a smartphone to show an encrypted QR code in the Rail Planner app, splitting the customer base by passport didn’t solve anything: it just created confused tourists and unnecessary support tickets.
Management finally retired the split: eurail.com redirects to interrail.eu, and the social accounts merged. The Eurail name is permanently gone.
Can non-Europeans buy an Interrail Pass now?
Yes: everyone buys Interrail now.
If you live in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or anywhere else outside Europe, you buy an Interrail Pass. The historical rule that blocked non-Europeans from purchasing an Interrail Pass was eliminated during the merger. When you visit the site, you select your pass based on travel days and class of service, exactly as before. The checkout system doesn’t care what passport you carry.
Pricing didn’t shift with the rebrand, either. A 7-day continuous pass or a 10-days-in-2-months flexi pass costs the exact same euro amount under the Interrail banner as it did under the Eurail label.
Eurail vs Interrail difference: are they the same thing?
They’ve always been the same pass: same trains, same app. You get access to national rail operators across 33 countries. You ride the same Deutsche Bahn ICEs, French TGVs, Austrian ÖBB Railjets, Swiss SBB Girunos, and Italian Frecciarossas.
You use the Rail Planner app to log journeys and display inspection barcodes. The software didn’t change when the Eurail name disappeared.
The single real difference between travelers has always been residency, and that rule didn’t budge: If you live in Europe, your pass caps you at two travel days in your home country: one outbound journey to reach the border, and one inbound journey to return home. That restriction stops local commuters from turning a discounted tourist pass into an everyday ticket for work travel.
If you live in North America or anywhere outside Europe, that home-country limit does not apply to you. It never did under the Eurail brand, and it doesn’t apply under Interrail now. You can ride every route in the network without a home-country penalty.
What about expats and dual citizens?
This is where travelers get burned. Pass rules depend on where you legally live, not the emblem on your passport cover. If you’re an American citizen living in Spain on a digital nomad visa, you are legally a European resident: your pass is subject to the two-day home-country cap within Spain.
If you’re a German citizen living in Chicago, you count as an overseas resident: you can travel across Germany without home-country restrictions, provided you carry official proof of your US address. Keep your residency papers or driver’s license in your daypack. If your passport nationality differs from your booking address, conductors on cross-border routes might theoretically ask for proof (they probably won’t, but just in case).
Is an older Eurail Pass still valid?
Yes.
Any Eurail Pass bought prior to the September 2026 retirement remains valid for its entire duration under the original purchase terms. No swaps. Zero paperwork.
What about seat reservations?
Nothing changed with seat reservations. That means the old headaches are still identical. A rail pass covers your rail fare, but high-speed trains and night routes still demand separate seat reservations with their own fees.
Any seat reservations referencing the old Eurail name remain completely valid: rail operators issue reservations tied to your carriage and seat number, not your pass brand. If your reservation slip says “Eurail” at the top, the conductor won’t look twice.
Why some of our older episodes still say Eurail
We write Rail Motus from North America for travelers heading overseas. Because of that vantage point, our older material naturally leaned on the name our audience grew up hearing. We went through the earlier articles on this site and updated the terms to match Interrail’s unified system.
Our podcast feed is a different story: we have earlier recorded episodes in the catalog from before the switchover. We aren’t re-cutting those audio files just to scrub out the word Eurail. If you hear us mention a Eurail Pass in an earlier episode, the routing advice and station tips are still rock solid: just picture the Interrail logo when you hear Eurail.