matticus
Guru
There's loads of the Parthenon in London too, so that's an easy one to cross off the list,
Well there you go - it just takes a little creativity!
There's loads of the Parthenon in London too, so that's an easy one to cross off the list,
I understand now. I'm not going to bother with Paris.
I'll spend my time knitting a yurt in my cave instead.
London is the only remaining point of departure for international passenger train journeys to France and beyond. I wish it wasn't, but it is. Lacking any further information about the departure point, it's a reasonable place to measure from, just like people in other posts are timing from the departure airport and ignoring what a massive ball-ache most of them are to get to, often with poor public transport links from East Anglia, or slow roads followed by expensive parking, ludicrously slow transfer buses to the terminal and hours of security theatre and forced captivity in a shopping mall, which they get away with because almost nobody includes the bus transfer and airside wait in the published journey timing.What the hell has London got to do with anything? Apart from people thinking it's the be all an end all of international travel, apparently.
Well, you'll have long journey times to most places when the first leg is a 25 minute ferry that doesn't start early enough and has a slackly-timed connection onto a train service so you can't reach reach St Pancras International before the last train which could get you to Marseille that day... but that's a very niche case and you may not have noticed, but most of the population has better transport service than that. Heck, my transport planner won't even spit out an itinerary from Dunoon to Glasgow Airport just now, so Lord knows how convoluted or unusual that is!It'd take someone from Dunoon 20 hours to get to Marseille, at least. I know because I've done it.
In some places. Again, please, let's not exaggerate the average difficulty or the average times. We don't need everyone to use it for everything for it to be an improvement from the current rubbish situation. For many journeys from the south, east and major towns and cities, it's a pretty viable option to most of Europe. For holidays, it can be way more enjoyable and relaxing than flying economy/budget/abuse class, but it's not without its problems at the moment (SNCF timetables and TGV/TER split, DB overcrowding and so on) and it becomes less great the further from St Pancras and the southern/eastern ports you are and that is something which should be fixed as a priority but GWR electrification and HS2 have scared politicians.In an ideal world we'd all be using public transport to get around, but the reality is that it's both difficult and time consuming.
This. Imagine if you could jump on a Eurostar at Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow and just go straight through to Paris or Spain etc. For us it's a pipe dream. For the French, Germans, Spanish, Swiss, Belgians, Dutch etc it's a reality. You can just hop on a train and go to different countries.For many journeys from the south, east and major towns and cities, it's a pretty viable option to most of Europe. For holidays, it can be way more enjoyable and relaxing than flying economy/budget/abuse class, but it's not without its problems at the moment (SNCF timetables and TGV/TER split, DB overcrowding and so on) and it becomes less great the further from St Pancras and the southern/eastern ports you are and that is something which should be fixed as a priority but GWR electrification and HS2 have scared politicians.
London is the only remaining point of departure for international passenger train journeys to France and beyond. I wish it wasn't, but it is. Lacking any further information about the departure point, it's a reasonable place to measure from, just like people in other posts are timing from the departure airport and ignoring what a massive ball-ache most of them are to get to, often with poor public transport links from East Anglia, or slow roads followed by expensive parking, ludicrously slow transfer buses to the terminal and hours of security theatre and forced captivity in a shopping mall, which they get away with because almost nobody includes the bus transfer and airside wait in the published journey timing.
Well, you'll have long journey times to most places when the first leg is a 25 minute ferry that doesn't start early enough and has a slackly-timed connection onto a train service so you can't reach reach St Pancras International before the last train which could get you to Marseille that day... but that's a very niche case and you may not have noticed, but most of the population has better transport service than that. Heck, my transport planner won't even spit out an itinerary from Dunoon to Glasgow Airport just now, so Lord knows how convoluted or unusual that is!
In some places. Again, please, let's not exaggerate the average difficulty or the average times. We don't need everyone to use it for everything for it to be an improvement from the current rubbish situation. For many journeys from the south, east and major towns and cities, it's a pretty viable option to most of Europe. For holidays, it can be way more enjoyable and relaxing than flying economy/budget/abuse class, but it's not without its problems at the moment (SNCF timetables and TGV/TER split, DB overcrowding and so on) and it becomes less great the further from St Pancras and the southern/eastern ports you are and that is something which should be fixed as a priority but GWR electrification and HS2 have scared politicians.
Plus the time to get to the airport, including bus transfer, assuming he doesn't live in the airport.If Andy is based in Scotland - lets be nice and say Glasgow, he has either got to take KLM for £1194 and take 6 hours by plane, transferring at Amsterdam, or Ryanair for £771 taking 7.5 hours by plane - plus the two hours added on for check in - so 8 to 9 hours.
Why wouldn't someone in Glasgow normally buy a 3-days-in-1-month France Interrail pass for £185, plus about £100 for seat reservations (€30 per Eurostar, €10-20 per TGV), so total £285? I assume we're talking about a planned/booked journey here, so no reason to buy individual tickets if they're not offering good prices. 3-days is the shortest pass, so you basically get a free daytrip on unreservable French regional expresses and some intercities, if you want.To go by train it will cost him £409 to get to St Pancras plus the £850 eurostar fare (so £1250) and instead of a 90 minute journey to St Pancras he has a 5 hour journey to St Pancras - so that's 15.5 hours by train and £500 cheaper.
I feel you exaggerate the average difficulty by things like suggesting the Cowal peninsula as if it was a typical start point, and only stating the travel time for an extremely messed-up journey from Brighton to Glasgow.I'm not exaggerating anything.
I'm really not. It's both worse than it should be for such a rich and developed country and yet still usable for much more than its detractors like to pretend. For example, I'll be travelling by train for most of my next short holiday, but I'll start by driving west to a non-local railway car park to overcome the slow service to East Anglia with badly-timed connections that you mentioned, and that really shouldn't be necessary.Just pointing out that you are in some kind of weird dreamland about public transport in the UK.
You could just go to Spanish City, or, New York, both in cycling distance for you
Why wouldn't someone in Glasgow normally buy a 3-days-in-1-month France Interrail pass for £185, plus about £100 for seat reservations (€30 per Eurostar, €10-20 per TGV), so total £285? I assume we're talking about a planned/booked journey here, so no reason to buy individual tickets if they're not offering good prices. 3-days is the shortest pass, so you basically get a free daytrip on unreservable French regional expresses and some intercities, if you want.
Again, there are reasons why this might not work (Eurostar are often a pain in the bum to book, TGV seats sell out, and so on), but let's not exaggerate: it's rarely £1250 for a booked two-country standard-class train trip, except for things like the Orient Express.
Well, maybe, and that's a different market. There are a small but growing number of package operators putting together both all-land and mostly-land holiday packages. It would be excellent if governments reacted more to what they say they need to succeed, instead of seeming mainly to listen to airline lobbyists.For those not inclined to spend 2 or 3 hours spreadsheeting, they may just go for that all inclusive package to Majorca where all the work has been done for them.
I feel you exaggerate the average difficulty by things like suggesting the Cowal peninsula as if it was a typical start point, and only stating the travel time for an extremely messed-up journey from Brighton to Glasgow.
I'm really not. It's both worse than it should be for such a rich and developed country and yet still usable for much more than its detractors like to pretend. For example, I'll be travelling by train for most of my next short holiday, but I'll start by driving west to a non-local railway car park to overcome the slow service to East Anglia with badly-timed connections that you mentioned, and that really shouldn't be necessary.
World population forecast to peak 2084. Probably far too late. Sleepy Joe and Vlad starting ww3 might get things underway before then.
I think he only has opinions on things that directly affect him. (I have of course assumed he identifies as he/him. Forgive me if I've assumed wrongly).The burning question is, will Spen care? I guess we might soon see.
I think he only has opinions on things that directly affect him. (I have of course assumed he identifies as he/him. Forgive me if I've assumed wrongly).
"Sorry kids - we were going to take you to Disneyland or to see the Pyramids / Parthenon / Taj Mahal. Instead it's two weeks in Devon to build sandcastles"