While all beauty queens aspire to travel and meet people - or so they like to
tell TV audiences - many regular business travellers secretly long to stay
in the office and never take a taxi to the airport again.
After trying to hide holes in their socks while shuffling through airport
security, hunting a seat in the departure lounge, tipping red wine on to
documents on a crowded flight and dealing with obstreperous taxi drivers on
arrival, the experienced traveller will find it hard to empathise with the
beauty queen’s innocent enthusiasm.
But there is an alternative, at least for journeys in Europe: the train. A
quick check-in, a comfortable seat, a proper table with space for some
genuinely useful work and even friendly attendants.
More and more business travellers say that a major factor in their choice of
transport is not just speed but a journey that gets them to their
destination feeling ready to charm and finesse clients rather than bite off
their heads.
Eurostar continues to woo passengers heading to Paris and Brussels away from
the airlines, and new high-speed routes make rail a real possibility for
trips farther into Europe. A long-awaited 125-mile (200km) stretch of
high-speed track between Brussels and Amsterdam will open later this year,
cutting the journey time from 2 hr 45 min to 1 hr 46 min, while times from
Amsterdam to Paris will drop from 4 hr 9 min to 3 hr 13 min. The London to
Amsterdam rail trip will also be reduced to about four hours.
By the end of this year there will be 3,700 miles of high-speed track in
Europe and by 2020, 9,000 miles. Chris Nash, professor of transport
economics at Leeds University Institute for Transport Studies, says: “The
traditional view is that to break through in the business market a rail
journey must not be longer than three hours door to door. But with longer
check-in times at airports and regular delays, a rail journey of four hours
for business is now feasible.”
The opening of the TGV Eastern European track in June 2007 cut journey times
between Paris and Stuttgart to three hours 40 minutes and to Frankfurt, just
ten minutes more. The line now spreads farther, linking Paris to Munich,
Basle and Zurich by high-speed trains with respective times of six hours 15
minutes, three hours 30 minutes and four hours 35 minutes.
The opening of the high-speed link between Rome and Milan last year cut an
hour off the journey, and the Barcelona-Madrid link cut airlines’ share on
the route to 40 per cent.
James Hough is typical of business travellers who prefer to let the train take
the strain. A chemicals marketing executive, he says: “From my home in
Hertfordshire I am within easy reach of St Pancras and Eurostar. Even having
to take a taxi across Paris or Brussels to another mainline station is worth
the bother because trains on the Continent are faster and more efficient
than those in the UK.
“My company’s travel policy insists on standard fares unless I am away for
more than a week or the flight is more than five hours long. The travel
manager sometimes flags up bargains from low-cost airlines and they are
great when the flight goes well. But I have been caught out by flying to an
airport and discovering that it is two hours by road from the city where I
will be doing business.
“The good thing about trains is that I can use my laptop, make phone calls,
receive e-mails, talk to my secretary and use nearly every moment of the
journey for productive work. When I get off and jump into a taxi, I feel
upbeat and ready to go, instead of grumpy and exhausted.”
Hough can look forward to more high-speed rail travel. France has plans for
fast links between the Rhine and the Rhône, while Denmark has broached a
high-speed network between Copenhagen and Åalborg. Next year the EU opens
international passenger rail to competition, which will lead to more fast
services.
On the right track for big savings on rail fares
In a test, two thirds of people were unable to book rail tickets to Europe
online, and those who did took twice as long compared with booking a flight,
according to Responsible Travel, the travel agent.
Worse still, the cost of rail travel from the UK to Barcelona, Rome, Brussels
and Munich was on average 70 per cent higher than flying.
Those business travellers who prefer trains to planes, because they can work
in comfort, often complain at the cost of rail and say the best deals are
hard to uncover. But now some train operating companies are investing in
online systems to make booking easier with immediate access to cheapest
fares.
Jon Reeve from Evolvi, an online rail booking service for travel management
companies, says: “Using online systems often results in savings of hundreds
of pounds. A day return from London to Leeds purchased at the station on the
day of travel would cost around £223 for standard class and £334 for first
class. Yet the same journey booked via Evolvi the day before would flag up
that using single fare options would save £56 on standard class and £108.50
on first class. Booking online seven days in advance would save £165 and
£234 respectively.”
National Express East Coast, the rail operator, offers packages combining
travel, catering and parking at a discount and insists it competes strongly
with rival modes of transport - car from London to Leeds or York and air
from London to Newcastle, Edinburgh or Glasgow.
Its new Carnet deal for frequent East Coast travellers gives ten first or
standard class open tickets for the price of nine on key business routes
from London King’s Cross, including Edinburgh, Leeds and Peterborough. The
ticket is transferable, so more than one person within a business can use it
for separate journeys. A spring pro-motion starting this month offers ten
tickets for the price of eight.
Managers of thetrainline.com website say that it enabled corporate internet
customers to pay on average 12 per cent less for rail tickets in January
this year than they did 12 months ago, largely thanks to advance booking.
Its “best fare finder” sends out an alert when advance tickets for
preselected journeys become available.
Rail Europe helps travellers to the Continent to find the lowest prices,
normally by booking early. Different train companies have different “booking
horizons” when tickets go on sale: 120 days for Eurostar, 90 days for the
French SNCF services and German trains, 60 days for Italian trains. Eurostar
tickets are as low as £59 return for early booking. In France, early
bookings, known as Prems, start from about £20.50 for a one way journey in
standard class, on routes throughout the country.
Rail Europe also tips InterRail passes, which offer good deals for frequent
journeys within a country.
