JoeDTW

I feel the underlying issue is that everyone is in favor of fighting climate change, as long as they don't have to make any personal sacrifices to do so.

People who prefer rail travel are very enthusiastic about limiting air travel to fight climate change, because they aren't personally affected.

However, organizations as diverse as the University of California at Los Angeles and New Scientist magazine have proved that owning a dog, especially a large one, is dreadful for the environment, in part because the carbon emitted to manufacture and distribute the food consumed by an average sized dog in a year is greater than the carbon emitted by a lorry in a year. One of the UK's top climate change scientists has said "owning a dog is an extravagance" for this reason.

I think most of the rail travel advocates who also own dogs would be adamantly opposed to lowering their household's carbon footprint by living without dogs. They feel it's a good idea that people like us have to endure a longer and less pleasant trip by rail in order to help save the planet, but they would think it's a horrible idea that they should help save the planet by not owning a dog.

Swanhunter

I like dogs, trains and planes so now very conflicted.

BlueThroughCrimp

There was a great article in The Guardian about reducing your carbon footprint, and one less child dwarfs the lot.
I wouldn’t worry about Fido.

HIDDY

I'd get rid of the wife before the dog. He's a better kisser.

BlueThroughCrimp

Does he make your tea better too?
(Insert fingers crossed emoji)

layz

Flying LTN-GLA is nowhere comparable to taking the train from Euston.

Those who need to get there quickly will be flying from LCY if they're based near there or LHR/LGW for west/south London. Luton is convenient for those in Bedfordshire not London.

The rail industry need to educate people that Luton is not London and so you also need to include the costs of actually getting into London in any price comparison. Flying from a proper London airport is always going to be faster than the train, plus fly a lot and you get fast track and lounge access (OK, not at LCY, but you do on the way back) to make the experience less painful.

So the train has to win by being comfortable, reliable, less hassle and for those who are less price sensitive offer a better on-board service than what you'd get in Club Europe.

New operator, Lumo, on the East Coast route plans to launch an all standard class service going London to Edinburgh at prices cheaper than easyJet from Luton (even if EZY is cheaper on the base fare then the train into London will tip the flight over into being more expensive). Now 4.5 hours in standard class has no appeal to me, it's either going to be LNER first class (although catering is currently reduced) or BA CityFlyer for me.

SxMan

I would travel by train from southern England to, for example Scotland – if only it were a comparable price. But, every time I look it is at least three times the price of a flight never mind four-times the time.

layz

On the Thameslink route it's not bad, just get to St Pancras and walk over to King's Cross (Euston isn't far either) but I know the tube puts some people off journeys that involve going through London (but for me I'd rather go through London than use a CrossCountry service if travelling from somewhere like Newcastle to Bristol).

Nikko5

Surely the FlyerTalk answer is to do LBA-BHD-LHR! Not sure if the 30mins at Belfast meets MCT, but it seems bookable using BA multi-city. 😉

Geordie405

So, of course, historically there was always the plan for Eurostar to operate from the regions to Paris / Brussels and BR operated feeder services with HSTs / 125s to London as a stop-gap measure. I remember train-spotting at Newcastle and seeing these trains operate, almost entirely empty. There were also plans for overnight sleeper services to the continent as well, but this was a non-starter and the rolling stock was exported to Canada (if memory serves correctly). Of course the regional Eurostar services came to nothing, although the trains themselves were used by GNER for a while on London - Leeds services.

As others have said, if all domestic short-haul services were to be banned I would no longer fly BA. There would be absolutely no incentive / inclination to fly BA from LAS to LHR / LGW and then connect to KGX to take an Azuma to Newcastle. I'd probably end up flying DL to ATL then on to AMS and from there to Newcastle.

A few years ago I was flying to NCL for Christmas. The BA flight out of LAS was delayed 3+ hours due to mechanical issues getting a cargo hold door open, and we missed our connecting flight from LHR to NCL. For my wife and I we were told the next available flight was the following day. For our daughter it wasn't until after Christmas that she would be able to fly. We had BA protect the return segments and then we ended up taking HEX to Paddington, the tube to KGX, and then LNER up to Newcastle, arriving there at roughly 11 pm. Now, all things considered, that wasn't too bad. It wasn't brilliant of course as we had three suitcases plus various backpacks etc. to tote across London but in terms of the interchange between HEX and tube etc. it worked as well as one could have hoped for.

Had we been going the other way, travelling from NCL to LHR by train to connect into a long-haul flight I know I'd have been a lot more apprehensive. I have done that trip a couple of times but you need to factor in significantly more time to allow for delays / farces etc. Someone above posted about train services having codeshares with airlines. Certainly this is an option - Air France did it with their TGV services between Brussels-Midi and CDG. You would check in at the Air France counter at Brussels-Midi and they would take and tag your bags and then load them onto the TGV. Thalys would also code share (I think it was with KLM for services out of Schiphol) so the concept isn't new.

World Traveller Fuss

MAN/LBA etc I can understand from London since a 2-hour train service is very competitive. I’d guess they have most of the market share too?

But to others comments outside of London’s Zone 1 to MAN/LBA, I’m not sure trains are that competitive of frequency, speed, price & comfort.

OverTheHorizon

Challenge accepted! Now, which one of the three shall I smite ?

Turnhouse1

They also don't mention capacity limits, the trains are already busy, to replace domestic flights to Scotland once travel is back to pre-covid levels probably needs an entire extra train from Kings Cross or Euston to Edinburgh or Glasgow every hour. I'm not sure there is space to schedule this as the lines out of London are very busy. Once HS2 opens, the Old Oak Common interchange will improve access to Heathrow by rail and capacity will increase. I suspect this will finally be the end for Manchester flights which aren't competitive for Centre-Centre already, but are currently faster and easier for transferring at Heathrow. Leeds and Newcastle are less well served by HS2, but in a weaker position to start with. I don't see Edinburgh and Glasgow stopping for connecting passengers unless and until a true High Speed Line reaches Scotland.

As mentioned before, journey time to Brussels is similar to Manchester or Leeds by train, Paris isn't much longer, certainly quicker than Newcastle. The 5 hour time is blatantly a targeted at including London-Edinburgh/Glasgow which are generally between 4 & 5 hours depending on the number of stops. The environmental benefits of a TGV is also better than a British train as their electricity is almost exclusively Nuclear rather than Gas.

The Ginge

If only the UK would do connectivity and highspeed lines properly, then there would be no need for most domestic flights. However this is the home of little long term planning and HS2 that might only be highspeed for half the route to Scotland! The Green Party for some reason also seem to be against HS2, yet stay silent on some road building programmes and other denounce it as a vanity project. Highspeed lines in France / Spain / Italy / Germany are not so why is that the case here.

S_W_S

Is that do-able? I looked on Matrix earlier and everything required an overnight (even a LBA-BHD-LCY).