British travellers dismayed at Rail Europe's decision to axe Motorail services into Italy can find another route this summer via Belgian Railways.

Car-carrying services to Milan, Venice, Bologna, Rimini, Livorno and Rome will run from June to September from Denderleeuw in Belgium, which is about 90 minutes' drive from the French ports and the Channel Tunnel and about an hour from Ostend. Belgian Railways offers a variety of sleeping accommodation for parties of up to six people, without the need to share a compartment with others. A dining car is available on most services and an attendant will turn your compartment seats into beds.

A mid-season return for two with car including a two-berth sleeper costs £557 to Milan and £794 to Livorno. Similar prices are available for four people sharing a couchette.

Belgian Railways also runs extensive services into France, Switzerland and Austria and has cut some of its fares by as much as 40 per cent this year. A car and six adults in a couchette one-way to St Maurice, Switzerland, is from £230, or a car and two adults in a sleeper one-way to Frejus, near Cannes, from £228.

Contact Belgian National Railways, 200 Blackfriars Foundry, 156 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8EN. Tel: 0207 593 2332.