Delta Airlines is ramping up Air+Rail, its program that allows passengers arriving at five European airports to switch smoothly to train service to their final destinations, with twenty routes in service by next April.
Train tickets are reserved through the air reservation process, with the Delta booking engine selecting appropriate train schedules, including seat reservations. Passengers will be able to pre-print the train tickets before flying. And for those who worry that a late flight might mean a missed connection, Delta has arranged with its rail partners for a 72-hour window of validity.
Sadly, what has not been arranged is a way to not have to retrieve luggage and get it to the airport rail station.
The program is somewhat similar to a long-standing Air France program called Train+Air, which makes similar connections for passengers at both Paris CDG and Paris Orly, connecting to major cities across France. Train+Air also operates in the reverse direction, allowing passengers to check baggage at the train station and have it handed over directly to Air France at the airport.
Delta’s program has already been operating at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport with connections to Brussels and Antwerp. The new connections are:
- Brussels Airport to Breda and Rotterdam in the Netherlands with operator SCNB.
- Manchester Airport to seven cities in the U.K. with operator TransPennine Express.
- Rome Airport to four Italian cities, including Bologna and Florence with operator Trenitalia.
- Zurich/Geneva Airport to seven cities in Switzerland, including Bern and Lausanne with operator SBB. The Geneva service starts in April when Delta starts its new JFK to Geneva flight.
