Fay Young

Who says we have to make sacrifices?

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fay
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Ray Perman finds a quicker, more comfortable alternative to flying. And, to coin a phrase, it doesn’t cost the earth.

It has always puzzled me why anyone would fly from Manchester to London rather than take the train. By the time you drag out from the city centre to the airport, allow for your check-in time and the slow trudge through security, have the hour’s flying time and then get in to London from any of the airports, the whole journey must take you at least three hours. Whereas the train takes at least half an hour less. Yet they do it. Train, I’m happy to say, is taking an increasing share of the market, but 40% of passengers still go by air.

From Edinburgh or Glasgow the time balance is more marginal. I left central London at 2.45pm last week and was home by 7.30pm, having had a relaxing journey and caught up on my emails with the in-train wi-fi. By air the time would have been at best an hour shorter – provided the plane had left on time. Trains are not immune to delays, but CAA figures show that they are still more reliable than air travel.

And they are much more comfortable. You get a larger seat and a proper table and can move around when you want to. Euston and Kings Cross are not my favourite places, but when you catch the train you only have to be there a few minutes before it leaves. UK airports (except the Isle of Barra) are now degrading and depressing places and you are forced to spend at least an hour there.

I’m just booking a month ahead and I see that the cheapest Easyjet flight Edinburgh-London is around £30, but onto that I have to add the cost of getting to and from airports at either end – a minimum of £15-20 and possibly over £30 if I take a taxi rather than bus at Edinburgh. The cheapest rail fare is £35 or I can go first class for £56, with free tea and coffee, food brought to my table and free internet.

And I haven’t yet mentioned climate change. Who says we have to make sacrifices to save the planet?

Comments

4 responses to “Who says we have to make sacrifices?”

  1. Administrator Avatar
    Administrator

    Here’s another twist in the flight versus rail conflict. I have a lot of time for the Green party, they get my second vote in Scottish elections. But I fear they really missed the point about the EARL link to Edinburgh airport (now consigned to the dustbin by the SNP government).

    For one thing, EARL was never just an Edinburgh link to the airport. It would have made Edinburgh airport the central hub for air travellers in and out of Scotland, however – much more significantly – it would have created a vital link, speeding rail connections across the rest of Scotland.

    Greens say they couldn’t support a project that would encourage people to fly. But that is an unrealistic argument. I agree that we should be finding good alternatives to stop an unsustainable growth in air traffic. But people will continue to fly so we might as well make sure they get to and from the airport as swiftly and economically and sustainably as we possibly can. EARL offered that opportunity and the SNP have let it go.

  2. Pauline Avatar
    Pauline

    Quicker door-to-door by bike. Where on earth does this guy usually catch a train to Brighton?

  3. John Avatar
    John

    But what about Matt Seaton in today’s Guardian. He claims it’s quicker by bike from London to Brighton than it is by train!
    “rather than complete a claim for a day return by rail to the Liberal Democrat conference i Brighton this week, I decided to travel down from London by bike instead. Slightl mad, yes, but I reckon the 110-mile round trip probably only took an hour longe each way, when you factor in the full door-to-door time of going by train. And it was an unmissably glorious autumnal day”
    On yer bike Ray!

  4. Administrator Avatar
    Administrator

    I agree, I would rather take the train than fly or drive any day. But our crazy disconnected system does seem to be designed to put people off train travel.

    On Sundays, and at weekends in general, train journeys are often horribly delayed by essential track repairs, Of course repairs are needed to keep infrastructure in good working order but the madness of privatisation adds extra confusion to every delay.

    Today our GNER service from Kings Cross to Aberdeen was delayed by signal failures at Grantham which meant it was running more than an hour late by the time it got to Newcastle. Much worse than that for the poor souls travelling to Aberdeen, an engine failure meant the train terminated at Edinburgh.

    Onward tickets would not be valid on Scotrail so GNER hired a bus to transfer the happy band of travellers from Waverley to Aberdeen. God knows when they got home but surely it would have been cheaper for GNER to make up the difference to Scotrail. And wouldn’t it be more efficient if the whole rail system was run by one integrated corporation?

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