I’ve recently done a similar journey (London > Belgium > Aachen > … > Berlin > Paris > Barcelona), staying overnight at a Paris hostel. Overall, while the expense and time was greater than it would have been on a plane, I find that I am very productive during trains (say, x2 to x5 productivity multiplier) and comparatively unproductive during planes (decently productive on the plane while flying, but I tend to lose a lot of time during queues and the hassle beforehand).
Overall I came away with the impression that for me the train option was significantly superior: because of my increased productivity, increased time is actually a plus.
One caveat is that the the queue at St Pancras is fairly lengthy and poorly optimized, and so the advantages vs a plane are a bit diminished. Another caveat is that I traveled light, with one backpack and a bag, which greatly simplified things for me. It’s also possible that staying at a hostel in between is a bad move for older people.
Overall I’d recommend the train, if only for the value of information about added productivity.
valueOfWorkperHourInDollars = 50 to 500 // <- input your own ehre
timeTrainInHours = 11 to 13
increasedProductivityOnTrain = 2 to 5
valueOfTrain = timeTrainInHours * increasedProductivityOnTrain * valueOfWorkperHourInDollars
timePlaneInSky = 2 to 4
timeHassleBeforePlane = 1 to 4
productivityWhileInSky = 2 to 4
productivityWhileHassle = 0
valueOfPlane = valueOfWorkperHourInDollars * (timePlaneInSky * productivityWhileInSky - timeHassleBeforePlane * (productivityWhileHassle-1))
{
valueOfTrain: valueOfTrain,
valueOfPlane: valueOfPlane
}
So overall I get a ~$2k (500 to 5k) for plane, ~$8k (1.5k to 20k) for train. This outweighs your other considerations (carbon emissions which are cheap to offset and dollar cost of tickets.)
But also note that I just really like trains, and for the figures above to be applicable to you, you should probably tweak them.
Ah. In that case, if you’d like the bounty, I think I’d need a little longer explantory write-up whcoh takes into account the carbon cost challenges, and answers some of the questions.. As the above only seems to take into account productivity time while travelling, and not the carbon cost challenge. Also, I’d have to change for the train etc. so I am not sure I’d have any productivity gains, I’m mostly interested in the emissions cost.
I’ve recently done a similar journey (London > Belgium > Aachen > … > Berlin > Paris > Barcelona), staying overnight at a Paris hostel. Overall, while the expense and time was greater than it would have been on a plane, I find that I am very productive during trains (say, x2 to x5 productivity multiplier) and comparatively unproductive during planes (decently productive on the plane while flying, but I tend to lose a lot of time during queues and the hassle beforehand).
Overall I came away with the impression that for me the train option was significantly superior: because of my increased productivity, increased time is actually a plus.
One caveat is that the the queue at St Pancras is fairly lengthy and poorly optimized, and so the advantages vs a plane are a bit diminished. Another caveat is that I traveled light, with one backpack and a bag, which greatly simplified things for me. It’s also possible that staying at a hostel in between is a bad move for older people.
Overall I’d recommend the train, if only for the value of information about added productivity.
Simple Squiggle model (link goes to the model)
So overall I get a ~$2k (500 to 5k) for plane, ~$8k (1.5k to 20k) for train. This outweighs your other considerations (carbon emissions which are cheap to offset and dollar cost of tickets.)
But also note that I just really like trains, and for the figures above to be applicable to you, you should probably tweak them.
Thank that’s very helpful to know. Thanks for the comment!
To clarify, the above was meant in response to your 200GBP bounty.
Ah. In that case, if you’d like the bounty, I think I’d need a little longer explantory write-up whcoh takes into account the carbon cost challenges, and answers some of the questions.. As the above only seems to take into account productivity time while travelling, and not the carbon cost challenge. Also, I’d have to change for the train etc. so I am not sure I’d have any productivity gains, I’m mostly interested in the emissions cost.