Traveller s Guide: Germany by train

A single Eurostar ticket will now take you as far as Munich. The implications for British travellers are profound, says William Cook

Fast track: high-speed ICE trains form the nation's backbone Getty

Eurostar is in its 20th year, and at last has started doing something that many travellers would have expected years ago: selling tickets from London to cities in Germany. The tickets include the Eurostar segment to Paris or Brussels and the connecting sector with Deutsche Bahn (German Railways).

The project is starting on a small scale: you have to choose from six German cities. Aachen, Bonn, Cologne and Dusseldorf all start at £49.50 single; Frankfurt from £79.50; and Munich from £97.50. The trip to Munich takes 10 hours from London, but you can reach Aachen in under four.

While Deutsche Bahn has long offered a wide range of destinations with print-at-home tickets, the fact that Eurostar is now selling Germany on its website and by phone is likely to spur a lot more interest in travelling to this fascinating nation by train.

And this is only the beginning. From 2016, Deutsche Bahn will be running direct services to Germany from St Pancras, making a train trip from London to Cologne almost as easy as a journey to Glasgow.

Long term, the political implications are profound. Historically, it's always been easier for Britons to travel around Britain than it has been for us to go abroad. Even foreign air travel hasn't changed this much, what with the time and trouble it takes to get to (and through) the bigger British airports. How will it change perceptions – and political persuasions – once Londoners can get to Frankfurt as easily as they can get to Edinburgh? In countries such as the Benelux states, where local trains criss-cross borders, national boundaries now seem almost irrelevant.

Where to go: Germany by train