Rail Europe GSA launches presence in Nigeria

…appoints PassageGold for ticket sales

By Isaac Tersoo Agber

Nigeria’s famous travel and logistics agency, PassageGold, has secured exclusive rights to distribute rail tickets and rail passes covering over 11,000 routes for Rail Europe GSA in Nigeria. GSA has a massive network spread in 28 countries within Europe, including non European rail products in Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea. With the appointment of PassageGold, travelers from Nigeria now have a one-stop shop for access to rail fares, schedules and maps of all European train networks.

Launching the novel product into the Nigerian market at a reception held in Lagos recently, Director of Marketing, Mr. George Anyanwu, said the company decided to partner with Rail Europe due to a growing demand of Nigerian customers for alternative and affordable travel within Europe and beyond via rail services.  Before now, customers who wanted to travel via train experienced difficulty in booking the train tickets and passes from Nigeria but can now do so effortlessly via the Rail Europe GSA for both paper and e-tickets.

Anyanwu noted that he had personally found it difficult to book a rail service with its attendant inconveniences, hence the company’s decision to partner with Rail Europe in an effort to make the service readily available to Nigerian customers.

On his part, Rail Europe’s Sales Manager – Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and India, Alexis Darne, noted that rail travel competed favorably with air transport and was a plausible choice for discerning travellers who know the many benefits that go with it.

He noted that rail travel had greater and flexible baggage allowance, connects major cities and airports, saves money, offers more comfort and access to wifi as well as various onboard services, an unrivaledlled view of landscapes and scenic beauty of many regions as well as being punctual and family friendly whereby children can travel free on trains up to eleven (11) years old around Europe and 15 years old in Switzerland on passes among others.

Mr. Darne noted that Rail Europe has the widest selection available of Rail products with its office based in Paris and has been in business for twenty (20) years with nine (9) offices around the world and operating in fifty (50) countries. He added that the company deals with virtually all the trains in Europe ranging from High Speed Trains e.g. TGV, EUROSTAR, THALYS, ICE, AVE, ITALO, etc, to Scenic Trains and Regional Day and Night Trains. Nigerians now have a wide selection of rail products to choose from including city to city; e.g. London to Paris, Paris – Frankfurt, Madrid to Barcelona etc, and Regional and Global passes for multiple countries on unlimited and limited travel e.g. Eurail Rail Four Country Pass for Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland.

Anyanwu, noted that as General Sales Agent (GSA) to Rail Europe in Nigeria, the service will be made available to both Travel Agents and Direct Customers.

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