All lines point to Japan for Interrail Planner as travel platform extends its coverage

Interrail Planner was established by Jack MacHugh, who is from Leeds, and his co-founder Jack Cowell in 2016.

Ahead of major sporting events such as the Rugby World Cup later this year and the Olympics in Tokyo next year, the business is looking to make travel to Japan easier to plan with its new platform Japan Rail Planner.

Mr MacHugh told The Yorkshire Post: “I met my co-founder at Bath University. The idea came when we were sat around a kitchen table actually planning an interrail trip around Europe with a few of our friends.

“It was quite stressful, everyone had different things open. We had Google Maps open, spreadsheets open to keep track of costs, a combination of hostel websites open.

“It was just too complex. We thought why don’t we create a website where we can make this whole process easier.”

It took a while to get the idea off the ground as their ambitious plans hit development snags. The university’s business school offered mentoring and the entrepreneurs pared back their ambitions.

Mr MacHugh said: “They advised us to build a Fiat before building a Rolls-Royce. We stripped the idea back and said what features are we going to need rather than what features we want.

“We launched a basic version of it in 2016 and we’ve been updating it ever since.”

One of the key challenges to getting Japan Rail Planner off the ground was understanding the country, Mr MacHugh says.

He and his co-founder went on a market research trip to Japan last September to experience what it’s like to travel around the country.

Mr MacHugh said: “We’re building a website that helps people travel around Japan so we had to go there to experience it and know what it’s like.

“We did that for three weeks. We went to all the major places and took every bullet train line there was and a lot of the regional trains as well.

“We also dealt with a lot of just Japanese speakers at train stations.”

A lot of people can be apprehensive about travelling in Japan due to the language barrier, says the 25-year-old entrepreneur, but he hopes Japan Rail Planner will give them the confidence to explore the country.

He said: “In the major cities you’ll find English speakers in the tourist areas at train stations. More and more, especially as the big events come up, signs will be in English as well but it does go a long way to learn a few Japanese words.

“We did and they really appreciated it. Japanese people are so friendly and so helpful, they’ll go out of their way to help you.”

Japan Rail Planner is free to use with the business making money off commissions from accommodation websites and the Japan Rail Pass. The plan is for the business to spend money marketing the platform using Google AdWords.

Mr MacHugh believes that the Rugby World Cup and Tokyo Olympics are going to lead to a spike in tourism. “We’re coinciding the launch with that,” he said. “We wanted to get it out there before these major events happened.”

In the immediate future, Mr MacHugh says the focus will be on the three sites that they have – Interrail Planner, Eurail Planner and Japan Rail Planner, beyond that China and South Korea are other markets they’d like to extend coverage to.

Making the journey

The business has three different platforms.

Interrail Planner, which provides InterRail Passes for Europeans travelling across the continent.

Eurail Passes are for non-Europeans and the firm caters for this market through Eurail Planner.

Japan Rail Planner provides Japan Rail Passes in partnership with J Rail Pass.

Brexit is unlikely to have an impact on the InterRail Passes, says Jack MacHugh.

“The only issue is if it comes down to visa access but we’re not concerned,” Mr MacHugh added.