Travelling by train
Responsible travel is the journey. Sustainable travel is the destination
– Nombulelo Mkefa
There’s more and more talk of sustainable travel.
It’s something that we all need to think about. Taking the train is the most environmentally friendly way of travelling (apart from walking or cycling) And for us, train travel is certainly our preference within mainland Europe.
We’re just back from a big train trip, taking ten trains in total.
1. Glasgow – Milton Keynes
2. Milton Keynes – Northampton
3. Northampton – London Euston.
4. London St. Pancras (Eurostar) to Paris, Gare du Nord
After a a few nights in Paris we added a detour…
5. Paris – St. Germain to see friends
6. St. Germain – Paris, Gare du Lyon
7. Paris, Gare du Lyon – Turin Porta Susa
8. Turin Porta Susa – Turin Porta Nuova
9. Turin Porta Nuova – Bologna
Our train trip had all gone well until this point.
On arrival in Bologna we transferred to another train heading towards the Adriatic coast and waited to depart. We waited. And then we waited some more.
Information coming through was sketchy. We were asked to wait on board the train, which was hopeful. But eventually we were all asked to dis-embark.
Trains were cancelled across the region. We didn’t fully understand why.
On seeing the queues of people at the ticket office waiting for assistance, we made some quick decisions. We accepted that we wouldn’t be travelling further that day and did the sensible thing; walk away from the chaos, book into a hotel and find a place for dinner.
At our hotel we were shocked to watch TV news and see the full extent of the emergency. Under the pressure of the new wave of critical weather conditions, a ‘maltempo’, the level of the River Po had risen by more than 1.5 meters in just 24 hours. Houses were damaged. Vehicles were floating in the flood water.
That evening in Bologna, a warm evening with balmy blue skies, it was hard to imagine that within the same region, torrential rain has caused such devastation.
We decided to ditch our train tickets from Bologna, buy new ones to Rome, then travel on from there.
10. Bologna – Rome
The next day we made it through, 24 hours later than planned. In the whole scheme of things, while we had the inconvenience of buying more train tickets, and spending an extra night away, that was nothing compared to the people who had lost their homes and vehicles to the flooding.
So would we opt to take the train again rather than flying?
We compared the two options, for one leg of the trip, from Paris to Italy.
Flight
A flight at the same time that we actually left Paris was approx. EUR 170
Add to that the cost of getting to the international airport in Paris, estimated at EUR 12
Arrival time in Rome would have been too late to connect to transport into the countryside of Central Italy, so we would have had to book an overnight stay, in Rome (in May, typically at least EUR 200 per night)
Finally transport the next day from FCO into Central Italy would be approximately EUR 22 pp.
Total time travelling to the airport, check in at 9 a.m, waiting around. flight, arrival, overnight stay, transport the next day and arrival at our destination – approximately 29 hrs
Train
It took 6 hours to travel from Paris Gare du Lyon by TGV to Turin trains, at a total cost of EUR 128 per person.
It was only a pleasure to be back in the Piedmontese capital again. The overnight hotel stay was EUR € 128
We boarded the ITALO high speed train, which took 2.5 hours to Bologna.
The onward train journey was approximately EUR 20 per person but those were the tickets that we didn’t get to use because of the flooding. It should have taken a further 4.5 hours to our destination.
Total time travelling from Gare du Lyon at midday to Turin, plus the overnight stop, the train to Bologna and finally the two regional trains would have been approximately 28.5 hours.
There are various factors to consider. The costs are quite similar, so it’s really a personal preference. We have to think about how we want to travel and of course consider the impact to the environment. In this instance we were happy planning to take two days to travel back by train with an overnight stop. It took longer. That wasn’t a train smash!
What’s your experience of long distance train travel?
© Maggie M / Mother City Time