The Index
Trainline, Europe's largest independent rail-ticket platform, has published a Culinary Rail Index ranking 10 European cities on the strength of their grain-based and carb-centric food and drink traditions — positioning culinary tourism as a direct driver of rail booking intent among American travelers.
The index, developed in partnership with chef and Hell's Kitchen winner Ryan O'Sullivan, evaluated 37 destinations across 11 European countries on a 100-point scale. Four criteria carried equal weight: rail accessibility, food and drink culture, historical significance, and overall "worth the trip" appeal. Bologna led the final ranking at 98%, followed by San Sebastián at 96.5% and Naples at 95%. Rome scored 93.5%, London 92%, Dublin 90.5%, Lyon 89.9%, Galway 87.5%, Barcelona 86%, and Manchester 84.5%. Signature dishes cited range from tortellini en brodo in Bologna to the barm cake in Manchester.
Why It Matters
Culinary tourism is one of the faster-growing segments within European leisure travel, and foodservice operators, regional producers, and hospitality businesses in the indexed cities stand to benefit from increased rail-driven visitor flows. For the food and beverage industry, indexes of this kind function as soft demand signals: destinations ranked highly tend to see measurable upticks in food-focused itinerary searches, which in turn influences where international visitors eat, which local suppliers get exposure, and how destination restaurants position themselves to inbound traffic. The grain and carbohydrate focus — pasta, bread, beer, pizza — maps closely to categories where European producers already command strong premium positioning with American consumers.
Hannah Randall, Country Manager at Trainline, framed the commercial logic directly: "What makes rail travel so special is that you can experience all of these in a single trip, moving between food cultures as easily as you move between cities."
Taste Guides and Rollout
To accompany the index, Trainline has produced destination-specific Taste Guides covering signature dishes, station-adjacent dining, and onward rail connections between featured cities. The guides are designed to convert index interest into bookable itineraries — a content-to-commerce model increasingly common among travel platforms targeting experience-driven millennial and Gen Z audiences.
Irish actress Nicola Coughlan serves as the campaign's talent partner, lending her personal food itinerary to the editorial content. Her recommendations and the full index are available at Trainline.com.
For F&B operators in indexed cities, the campaign represents the kind of third-party credentialing that drives footfall without direct marketing spend — particularly relevant for independent restaurants navigating post-pandemic tourist recovery. Broader trends in culinary travel and foodservice investment in Europe continue to attract platform and media attention as rail networks expand cross-border capacity.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
