At present!Your text is a little ambiguous. All of the above are indeed reasons to use the train, but over longer distances many more people will choose to fly because it's usually quicker and cheaper.
At present!Your text is a little ambiguous. All of the above are indeed reasons to use the train, but over longer distances many more people will choose to fly because it's usually quicker and cheaper.
... and the hassle and time of reaching an airport makes the train journey much less stressful and not longer, than flying.
Your text is a little ambiguous. All of the above are indeed reasons to use the train, but over longer distances many more people will choose to fly because it's usually quicker and cheaper.
I never meant to say otherwise. I was trying to point out the reasons why some (not that many) people will choose the train and why 20 minutes more or less on such a long journey will not make a difference to them.
That's the big thing for me - I find train journeys much less stressful than flying (or more to the point, airports).
Also the time difference often isn't as big as people make out - taking the Nice example, the train journey is quoted above as 8-9 hours from London. For me, it's an hour to St Pancras, plus 30 mins check-in and a bit of leeway gives 10-11 hours total. To fly, the flight may only be two hours, but I've got to allow two hours to get to Gatwick, plus two in the airport, plus another at the other end to get out through customs, baggage check etc and get into Nice itself - so that's at least 7 hours. Either way I've used a whole day travelling, so I may as well do it in a relaxing way rather than a stressful one.
It's not always cheaper to fly either - I've done London-Krakow by train for less using some of Seat61's tips.
When you tell them how much cheaper a day train ticket will be than a night train though, many will opt for the former.
And as I said, the continuing development of high speed rail infrastructure across the continent will rapidly reduce journey times.