Continuing the theme of recent posts on sustainable travel, Bethany Nelson reflects on using the train to travel across Europe with her family:
My usual summer holiday is spent in Yorkshire visiting my family or braving a beautiful but sometimes soggy Scottish campsite. But this summer has been different. We decided to take our children abroad for the first time. Keen to avoid the carbon cost of flying, we sought advice from friends and colleagues who have used train travel to get around Europe.
It took plenty of late nights peering at the Interrail app and booking Airbnbs to break our journey, but gradually our trip came together. We started by booking interrail passes that gave us seven travel days. We then built our journey around two main destinations, where we have friends to visit: Riggisberg, Switzerland and Rome, Italy.
A global interrail pass includes travel in the UK to the continent, with one day allowed for the outward journey and another day for the return journey. Stopping over in Paris enabled us to do this, as it is reachable in a day from Edinburgh. The following day we had breakfast in Paris, lunch in Strasbourg, where we changed trains, and dinner in Riggisberg.
During our stay in Switzerland, we used one of our travel days to journey to Grindlewald, experiencing the dramatic contrast in temperatures from high 30s in the valley up towards the snowy peaks of the Alps.
The longest single train ride during our trip was from Milan to Paris, which formed part of our journey home from Rome, taking seven hours. Even on these long trains, the time went surprisingly quickly thanks to plenty of games of Uno and Monopoly Deal. We also found travelling by train felt comfortable as it is easier to stretch your legs than when in a car or plane.
After a stopover night in Paris, we travelled home all the way to Dalmeny Station (via Kings Cross St Pancreas and Edinburgh Waverly). We arrived home having had an incredible adventure.
What was the cost
Planning any holiday comes with budget considerations. Our seven-day interrail passes cost £324 per adult. As both our children are still under 12, their interrail passes were free – a huge cost saving right from the start. We then had to purchase seat reservations for most of the long-distance trains we used. Seat reservations tended to be about 10 euros per journey.
We were blessed to have friends living in fantastic places who offered us their spare rooms to stay in, saving money on many nights’ accommodation. We also made use of Airbnbs to avoid hotel prices and the need to always eat out.
Whilst flying would have been a cheaper option, we knew this would mark the earth much more deeply than any financial cost would dent into our bank account.
In order to estimate the difference between the carbon footprint of flying and rail-travelling the route we took, I have used the same carbon footprint calculator that the provincial Net Zero Team use to gauge the footprint of our office-based and travel-based work.
- Over the course of our holiday, we travelled 4914 km.
- Using National Rail as an approximation for European train travel, this would equate to 174 kg carbon, based on a conversation factor of 0.035 CO2e per km.
- If we had flown on short haul flights, the distance travelled would have equated to 618 kg carbon, based on a conversation factor of 0.126 CO2e per km.
Future holidays
I have written this post in the hope that it might inspire and encourage others to try travelling abroad by train, in the same way that friends and colleagues have inspired me.
So often we feel guilty about choices we have made in the past or intimidated by the eco-friendly lifestyles of others. Instead, let’s focus on making wise plans going forward, that care for God’s creation and leave smaller footprints, in whatever ways we can.
For more information, see the links below:
Bethany Nelson, Empowerment Coordinator
