Originally Posted by
BAAZ
No. It isn't 5 hours door to door, it's 5 hours St Pancras to Frankfurt Hbf. Experience elsewhere in Europe suggests that high-speed trains start to compete effectively with air travel around the 3-hour-train-journey mark. Much less than that and the train is the clear winner; much more than that and most people prefer the plane.
It would be very similar to London-Edinburgh, where most of us would probably choose to fly.
I couldn't agree with this more. I think 3 hours train journey is about the cut-off when flying (with all its attendant hassles these days) becomes more convenient. And don't forget, for internaitonal rail services you still have to do security (not as tight admittedly) and immigration, unlike domestic services.
If you could do LON-EDI on the train in 3 hours then I think most people would take that option with little thought - but at 5 hours, it's quicker (and often cheaper) to let the plane take the strain.