UKC

Nothing to do with Brexit (shudder) apparently. But another signal that we (GB plc) are closing down. A great & cheapish way for young people to see other cultures - gone for a Burton. Proft, self-interest, inefficiency. Net result: we're drifting further into isolation...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49263781

People from the UK can still use Interrail, it's just that you won't be able to travel _to_ Europe on the same pass.

Thereby defeating the objective of Inter-Rail...

I'm not defending the change, I'm just saying that it's still available within Europe, for people from the UK. 

RDG are also being a bit disingenuous when the accuse Interrail of pushing them out. It's RDG inisisting that Interrail users should have to buy their own, separate Britrail pass that has caused this dispute. 

I do hope the scheme is preserved. I went in 1974 and 1975...I think the prices were £ 38 and £47 or so. It opened my eyes to loads of different areas/ cultures and  developed my sense of adventure/independence.  I remember things like sleeping in luggage racks and going in to Ceausescu era Romania, which was an eye-opener. It was the time when one travelled for a month with no planned itinerary and just sent one post card home to allay the fears of parents.

My recollection from 1986 was that the interrail ticket didn't cover rail travel in the UK, so you had to get to the port with a separate ticket.

But my recollection could be wrong...

It wasn't valid in your own country. Which makes sense.

Nothing to do with Brexit (shudder) then

But fits the current national zeitgeist

Yes. I had a feeling that you were piggybacking. 

Gammon was far from my mind at the outset

FTFY...

So to re-cap. Inter-Rail tickets weren't valid in the UK, then they were, now they're not. Not exactly the end of civilisation as we know it.

No. 

Interrail tickets were not (and are not) valid for travelling around your own home country, wherever that may be. The change is that they are no-longer valid in the UK at all so a non-UK citizen doing an Interrail trip around Europe can't use them to travel around the UK. 

For these purposes, the UK starts and finishes at the Eurostar terminal in London so London is available to visiting Interrailers but the rest of the UK is not unless they pay extra.

Got it. Thanks for the clarification.

That's not entirely true. You can't use them for traveling *around* your country of residence, but you can make one outbound & one inbound journey within your own country on a multi-country pass. So for UK residents who live a reasonable distance from London this could easily add £100 to their interrail trip.

Does that mean the Eurostar is (was?) included as part of the Interrail network?

You couldn't do this when I got a pass 15 years ago. It was valid in Europe but not in your country of origin. Well least not from the UK, not sure about the other countries. 

No better way to test your relationship to destruction for generations of students.... or was it just me?

Hadn't that already been done by Clegg and the LDs?

That's not quite correct. Otherwise my London to Edinburgh train journey on Saturday could not happen. 

I am using a 3 day flexi interail pass. The journey on Saturday starts in Lausanne and finishes in Edinburgh. 

Yes, at least that’s how it was back in 1985.

I'm not pretending to be any expert in this. My last direct experience on Interrail was in 1983 and it does seem to have changed a bit since then! 

Checking again the link from the OP, it says that the change comes in from January 2020.  I should have been more careful and written 'the change will be'. The article specifically says that a separate ticket will be required for travel in the UK other than the Eurostar which is unaffected. 

Reportedly everything is going to continue as it was after all. Good.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49281776

Do you think the consensus will be:

a) After making a decision to leave, it then became apparent just how damaging that decision was, so the decision was reversed and everyone is happy again

or

b) After threatening to leave with no alternative arrangements, this strengthened their hand so they were able to negotiate a better deal?

This is good news. Nice to see that there's a willingness to reflect on a decision, in order to avert almost certain reputational and financial damage to the UK...

This observation is also  'Nothing to do with Brexit (shudder)....' as stated in the OP