Category Archives: General Travel (non-flights)

Who rips you off more – Ryanair or Swiss Rail? The Swiss win hans down!

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An open blog post to @sbbnews

Now let’s make this clear – this is not an attempt to compare cost per mile or anything related to the fare itself. It is a simple expression of complete frustration at the total confusion caused by the booking system of a network I know and love.

I have visited Swizterland many times, and have always travelled by train, usually taking advantage of one of the four day Swiss travel passes to continue across the country. In Switzerland, the rail network is a natural extension of the flight, as the two main airports of Geneva and Zurich are not just connected to their respective city centres, but also to a huge selection of destinations beyond.

The fact that the Swiss travel network is so well integrated needs little introduction – the trains are really just the start, with onward links provided by bus, ship and even cable car, although these often require a supplement, as do many of the scenic mountain lines.

So what have they done now to incur my wrath? I am trying to do a simple comparison of some onward journeys by rail, just looking at connections between major cities like Geneva and Zurich. I said last week that trying to get public transport information from UK public transport website Transport Direct was like having teeth extracted. Trying to book a train with Swiss Railways is like having your face smashed in, and then going to the dentist for repair work.

Here’s my list of gripes:

  • Try booking a ‘supersaver’ ticket – firstly, you can only do so upto 15 days in advance, not much good for someone planning a holiday. Surely these fares are supposed to encourage early booking?
  • No way of finding the best fare, just trawl through different times and see what comes up.
  • Double up! Clicking through to the supersaver price includes the standard price in the basket – e.g. Basel to Bern discounted CHF 15.20 (approx. £10) + Standard CHF 38.00, gives a total of CHF 52.40 – why would anyone buy two tickets for the same train?
  • ‘Almost free of charge’ supersaver tickets – sounds like Ryanair again, but we’re initially only offered sample prices to Lucerne. Eventually a sample price from Geneva to Zurich is offered at CHF 28 – with the best price found being nearly twice that.
  • Zurich and Basel confusion – now I know enough German to understand that HB stands for Hauptbahnhof or Grand Central, but most users would not. I also understand that the SBB in ‘Basel SBB’ stands for Swiss Railways, as opposed to the side of the station that serves France. Again, I would not expect most users to understand this geographical quirk, unless they had been there. We are also lazy, so we type ‘Zurich’, not ‘Zürich’ or Zuerich – after all, the menu does at least start in English.
  • Enter name and date of birth. Why on earth should I give these details just to get a price quote? And again, the British way of writing dates is with forward slashes, not dots – not that we should dictate this to our European cousins, but an intelligent system should either not ask in the first place, offer a drop down, or understand both.
  • No indication of train type (minor gripe). This is more of a geeky personal preference, but some of the mainline services, for example between Zurich and Milan, feature some impressive mountainous sections, which are much more enjoyable when onboard a tilting train. The only was of knowing which trains are tilting is to see if bikes are not conveyed – as the ETR 470 sets don’t take them.
  • Other fees? I haven’t even got to whether or not there is a credit card fee, service charge or booking fee, as most users would be long gone by now.

Note: Isn’t this all a bit Anglo-centric? After all, Switzerland has 4 official languages, none of which is English?

A Swiss visitor to the UK could indeed quite rightly complain that Virgin Trains or any other operating company don’t offer them the opportunity to book in German or French – and as for Italian or Romansh!

Yet, like it or not, English is the language of international travel. Of course, speaking the local lingo in any destination is always a big bonus, but it helps to have a website which helps you get there in the first place.

In that respect, I’m afraid SBB.ch is a total fail.

How to save 36% on New York car hire

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New York is one of the most popular destinations for people taking long haul flights into the USA, and many people jump straight off the plane and head into Manhattan without even thinking about hiring a car.

Yet a car is ideal for exploring the huge range of places that can be reached beyond New York itself, so here’s a simple way to save upto 36% on New York car hire.

The advice is simple – just land in the right place! So many people put a huge amount of effort into squeezing every last penny off their flights that they don’t think about the additional costs at each end of the journey. For a long time, we have warned against the costs of flying into Newark Airport and taking a taxi into Manhattan – this will set you back around $100 including tips and tolls, compared to $60 from JFK – but the journey back to Newark will cost an extra $15 surcharge on top. This relates to the fact that Newark Airport is in the state of New Jersey, and New York taxis cannot pick up passengers there and vice-versa, so you are paying an out-of-state surcharge, and you pay the tolls in both directions (although the Holland Tunnel is only chargeable heading in to Manhattan).

When it comes to New York airport car hire, the advice is the same, except in reverse – this time, it is much cheaper to pick up your car at Newark. Again, local taxes play their part here, and these vary from state to state.

So, I looked at a week’s Newark Airport car hire in March, and this came out at £167 for JFK or just £114 for Newark – a saving of 32%. Look forward to November 2012 and the JFK rate ramps up to £197, putting it amongst the world’s most expensive car hire locations. Meanwhile, for the same period, Newark Airport car hire comes in at £145, a massive 36% cheaper.

This was for the cheapest car available, so the savings will be greater for family cars. However, the more people there in the the group, the more difference small savings in airfares will make. If you are taking New York flights from London, you can select the best fare / car hire combination to either airport.

If you live near airports such as Birmingham or Manchester, there can be an instinctive urge to look for flights from London, when local flights are available without the hassle and cost of getting to Heathrow. Many UK regional airports offer direct flights to Newark with United Continental, but sometimes indirect flights to JFK via another European hub can be cheaper. Beware that if you are adding on a hire car, this could be a false economy.

Check New York Airport car hire with Car Rentals .co.uk

How About High Speed 2 Wheels?

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For a long time, when asked about the need to reduce the environmental impact of aviation, my stock answer would be that transferring shorthaul flights on to high-speed rail services should be an obvious aim for governments. Yet, the more I have learnt about this governments high-speed two proposals, the more I have felt that it would be a very poor investment indeed, whether measured on economic or environmental grounds. Yes, having high-speed trains would shift some people from shorthaul flights onto less polluting rail services, but it has to be remembered that this big switch has already been largely made, especially on flights from London to Leeds, Liverpool and Durham Tees Valley, which no longer operate.

So if high-speed 2 is a bad investment, what would be a better investment? Obviously, any comparison between rail and air travel is about longer distance intercity journeys, whereas the vast majority of journeys take place within built-up environments, or are commutes between outlying towns and city centres. What if all the money collected from air passenger duty was actually put towards genuinely environmentally beneficial projects? Few things are better for the environment than high-quality off-road walking and cycling tracks, using existing historic transport corridors, especially disused railway lines. Yet, this can be done for a fraction of the cost of building new ones — the figure quoted by cycling charity Sustrans is that new cycle paths can be built for around £200,000 per mile, compared to the £155,000,000 per mile cost of high-speed 2.

Now, can these really be comparable, when high-speed 2 must surely carry far more people at much higher speeds? Yes, it might well do, but its entire business model is based on very ambitious estimates of user figures. Why put so many billions of pounds into such an inherently risky project? Whether high-speed 2 is viable or not (and we are certainly in the no camp), investing in better facilities for pedestrians and cyclists would still provide a much quicker win, both in terms of transport and human health.

Don’t fancy flying all the way to Australia? Why not go by bus?

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When I first read about Oz-bus.com, I thought that April fools day had come early. A long distance bus service running all the way from London to Sydney – someone had to be taking the xxxx!

But it turns out that the service is real – and that they will take you by bus as far as the prevailing conditions will allow. This should essentially mean an overland journey to Iran, a possible flight across the border into Pakistan and then again to get through Burma, and a final flight between Bali in Indonesia and Darwin in Australia – but the rest of the journey is exactly as it says on the tin, by comfortable long distance coach, apparently limited to 35 passengers per trip, so I would presume a little bit more roomy than your average scoot through London on a crowded #73 Boris-baiting bendy bus!

With a one-way journey starting at £4399, you are going to spend a lot more than a business class flight, but we think this journey is going to be more about what you see on the way than what you do when you get there, so for a three month trip, this works out at a very reasonable £50 per day, including breakfast and basic accommodation.

I’ll have to admit to being a bit ‘bussist’ myself. If I’m going to do long distance surface transport, I’d rather go by rail or sea – but given a choice between a professional bus driver and the company of a 35 strong group, or going by car, I’d still take the bus any day. Oz-bus also offer an eastbound journey to New York – via China and Alaska, and journeys through Africa, so it really does look like they are carrying on where Eurolines and Greyhound leave off. It will be interesting to see if this kind of travel ‘takes off’ (very lame pun I know) as people look for low-carbon alternatives to flying, and it will certainly be an indicator of the ability for different countries to stimulate cross-border co-operation. Iran, Pakistan and Burma might be problem areas for now, but how long before the Facebook generation catches up and reaches parts Heineken can’t reach! Twitter has certainly lead the way in Iran at least, so let’s see!

Who would you like to see Flightmapping interview?

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Over the next few weeks, we plan to start interviewing some of the key movers and shakers who inspire us to travel. And we’re not just talking about tired old airline hacks like Ryanair’s motormouth Michael O’Leary, who we’ve already done to death, we want to talk to the musicians, architects and politicians who put destination cities on the map. And we might have a few words with the odd sportsperson or two, if they’ll talk to us.

I know who is top of my list – ok, he is a rich bigwig if that’s not too much of a giveaway, but we’d like to hear from our users who they’d like us to speak to. Anyone who has an influence on transport and the tourism industry is fair game, and they don’t just have to be UK based, our expense accounts like to give MP’s a good run for their money!

May all United Airlines flights to Rome land safely tonight

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So tonight, Rome is playing host to two of the finest cities in Europe, and I couldn’t help resist coming up with a few very lame puns to celebrate the occasion:

  • All roads may lead to Rome, but where will one champions league trophy end up tonight?
  • I don’t think I’ll hear this being chanted at the ref — Amo, Amas, Amat, you are El Prat (from my early attempts to learn Latin at school — a phrase my dad always told me, changed to ‘El Prat’, which is the airport and Barcelona)
  • Title hopes Ruined In A Day (New Order song)
  • Ball of Frustration (after James — Born of Frustration)
  • Don’t Look Back In Anger (Oasis)
  • He’s Not The Messiah, He’s A Very Naughty Boy (Ian Brown – Resurrection / Life of Brian)
  • Biggus Dickus (Life of Brian) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8_jgiNqUc
  • Threw him to the Floor, I mean he threw himself to the floor (after Biggus Dickus speech)
  • Friends, Romans, City Fans?
  • Veni, vidi, left empty handed from Da Vinci
  • Young Offender (New Order)
  • We Hate It When Our Enemies Become Succesful (Morrissey)
  • Manchester United airlines — fly the unfriendly skies

    • Google launches Street view bike

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    It looks like Google are extending their Street map service to include famous landmarks which aren’t easily accessible directly from the road.

    There will always be privacy whingers, but I think the reality these days is that if you go out in public, you are always going to be photographed by something, and Google Street view has to be a lot more open about the information it divulges, compared to all those CCTV cameras that are always watching us from on high.

    Getting in this close could enable virtual tours of all kinds of different buildings, but the question I have to ask is — with so much viewing technology available on the Internet, will people just want to stay at home and stare at their computer screens, or will people be more encouraged to actually go out and see things for real?