Travelling Europe By Train

 

 
Photo by JK on Unsplash

After a year of not being able to go anywhere further than for a walk in the local park, we're sure everyone is chomping at the bit to travel a little further afield. But don't buy your plane tickets just yet! Jeannine is here to extol the virtues of travelling by train, and probably make you even more excited for a holiday (sorry!).


It’s no secret that flying isn’t exactly great for the planet – but sometimes there’s just no alternative, right? Wrong. Travelling by train, particularly within Europe, is actually very, very feasible. And it’s far less complicated/expensive/exhausting than you might think. Of course, depending on the distance travelled, trains may take longer (although this, to some extent, is an illusion – more on that later). They can also be more expensive than flights, particularly if you’re looking at budget airlines. But taking the train also means you get to see more along the way – you can even choose to spend an afternoon, or even a few days, in a stopover city. And, importantly, taking the trains means emitting A LOT less CO2. A journey from Manchester to Berlin by plane, for example, emits 256kg of CO2 per passenger while the same journey by train emits only about 30kg of CO2 per passenger (note that both figures are estimates – the exact figures would depend on the type of plane and trains, the number of free seats, the type of fuel used, etc.; various estimates of CO2 emitted per mile on air versus rail travel, however, confirm that air travel emits about 8-10 times more CO2 than rail travel). 

 

Not only is train travel better for the environment, many people find it less stressful than air travel. Rather than hurrying through check-in and security, sitting in various waiting halls, finding your gate, queuing to get on and off the plane, sitting in narrow plane seats with limited legroom, going through passport control, and waiting for luggage, most of your train journey will be spent sitting in relatively comfortable train seats – and maybe this is just me, but while I cannot for the life of me read or work on planes, I have no problem doing either on a train. Moreover, if you travel by train, you get to pack whatever, and however much, you want – that’s right, no more panicked measuring or weighing of suitcases, no more restrictions on the amount of liquids you can take, and no more digging out said limited liquids for security control.

 

Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash

So, if this has got you interested in trying rail travel, here’s how to do it:


For short-haul, national flights: Just book a train. You know how to. 

Yes, taking the train will often take a little longer, but if you factor in the trips to and from the airport (versus the normally much shorter trips to and from the train station) and the fact that you need to be at the airport 90mins (if not more) before your flight leaves, the fact that most planes leave at least a little late, the time you spend queuing to get off the plane, and the time you spend waiting for your luggage, flying doesn’t actually save you that much time. A flight from Edinburgh to London, for example, is marketed as taking about an hour and 20 minutes. Add to that the 90 minutes that you spend at the airport before your flight leaves, plus the 30 minutes you spend in a train or car travelling to and from the airports, and, finally, the 15 minutes spent waiting around for the plane to take-off, for the doors to open post landing, etc. – these numbers are, of course, only estimates but I think it’s fair to say that they are more likely to under- than to over-estimate the time these things take – and suddenly you’re spending 4 hours and 5 minutes on that 1 hour 20 minutes journey. By contrast, a direct train between Edinburgh and London takes 4 hours and 50 mins. Add to that 20 minutes to travel to and from the station as well as the 10 minutes you want to be at the station before your train leaves, and you’re at 5 hours and 40 minutes. So even though the difference between the time spent actually travelling on a plane versus on a train is 3 and a half hours, the actual time you save by flying is only just over 1 and a half hours. Whether or not you can expend that time in order to reduce your carbon footprint is, of course, up to you.

 

For longer and/or international flights, it’s likely that flying will be ‘worth it’ from a time-saving perspective (although, the above reasoning still applies and flying often saves a lot less time than you might initially think). Still, the other benefits of rail travel remain: you’ll likely save yourself a lot of stress, you can pack whatever you want, you’re able to visit places along the way to your destination, and you’ll emit far less CO2. 

 

To plan rail journeys across Europe, I usually begin by checking websites such as RailEurope, Omio, Trainline or the Interrail Journey Planner (all linked below). These will give you an overview of the different routes you could take, the train operators you will be using, and (except for the interrail journey planner) the associated costs. Note that all of these websites sometimes return ‘no results’ if either the starting point or destination of your journey is not a prominent city. In that case, simply take the next big city and use the website of the local train operator – google maps will tell you its name if you ask it to plan a train journey from the big city to the place you actually want to go – to plan the remaining part of the journey. 

Once I have decided on a route, I usually book all my trains directly with the operators – so rather than booking through Trainline, for example, I book my journey from Manchester to London with Avanti West Coast, the train from Manchester to Paris with Eurostar, and the train from Paris to Barcelona with SNCF. This is often cheaper and, in my experience, will make it easier for you if you need to cancel your journey or claim delay compensation. When booking, make sure you leave yourself enough time for any train changes – I usually aim for about 15 minutes.

 

 

A few extra tips:

 

If you don’t want to spend the larger part of a day sitting on trains, consider getting a night train – these may not be as popular as they used to be, but do still run between large cities (e.g. Paris – Milan). Sweden, for example, is currently working on new direct night trains to Hamburg and Brussels, which are set to start running in early 2022.


If you have the time to travel by train rather than by plane, but it’s simply too expensive, consider getting a bus instead. Flixbus (website linked below) connects a lot of major European cities and is extremely affordable. 


Finally, you’ve probably heard of Interrail. An Interrail pass is absolutely fantastic if you want to travel to multiple cities and/or countries over a certain period of time. However, an Interrail pass is also great for ‘normal’ holidays, i.e. travelling to a place, staying there for a bit, and travelling back. There is a ‘4 days within a month’ pass that, as the name suggests, allows you to travel freely on whatever trains you want (check the Interrail website for details; some train operators may require you to pay a reservation fee) on 4 days within a 30-day time period. This is perfect for when you want to travel further than trains can take you in a day or want to have a stopover on your way there. You could, for example, travel from Manchester to Prague and have a stopover, be it for a night or a few days, in Amsterdam. On the way back, you could take a different route and spend a day and a night in Brussels. At 185EUR/~165GBP (provided you’re under 28), this pass is a relatively affordable option for trips that may initially seem too far to do by train. 

 

Photo by Joss Woodhead on Unsplash


If you’re still sceptical about travelling Europe by train, I would encourage you to just give it a try. Pick a relatively short journey – maybe go to Brussels or Paris or somewhere else that you can travel to directly from London. If you can’t afford to spend the time or money it takes to travel there and back by train, get a flight for one way – you’ll still reduce your carbon footprint by a lot. Finally, for those times that, for whatever reason, you travel by plane, please consider off-setting the emissions using one of the websites linked below. 



Author: Jeannine

 

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Resources:


To find and book trains across Europe:


For details on the CO2 emissions of air and rail travel:


To off-set CO2 emissions from air travel:

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