Be informed

OK, here we go. Low carbon travel. Train and ferry. Some facts.

Cost

Journey starts Saturday 17 November 2024. To fly from Gatwick Airport on that day would have come in at £45.00 (no luggage) – probably double that with the luggage I have taken that would need to go in the hold. Such pricing in the age of a climate emergency is obscene. By train:

London-Paris – £69.00 (standard class – average of return fare in November/December, considerably more in the summer or ahead of public holidays)

Hotel Paris – I was too late booking this for a Saturday evening. Overall cost £135. Hotel was Ibis Styles, Bercy. Breakfast included, and it was not bad. The room was tight but comfortable.

Paris – Madrid – £175.00 (standard class) – TGV to Barcelona and then Renfe to Madrid. The double-decker TGV is not particularly generous in terms of space, but not uncomfortable. The single-deck Renfe train was much more spacious but with no table (drop down rests were adequate for a laptop). We could not use the wifi because we could not see our ticket number (needed to register).

Hotel Madrid (Ibis Ventas) – £96.33 (incl. breakfast)

Madrid – Cádiz – £80 (standard class)

Hotel Cadiz (Soho Boutique Cadiz) £80 (incl. breakfast)

Cádiz – Gran Canaria – £91.10 (ferry – no cabin)

Taxi – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria – San Augustin – (£75.71) – Why taxi you ask? See below

Being in my sixties, I am not up for hostels, although I know that some budget travellers do so. Good for them, but I think I have reached a milestone. That said, in not selecting a cabin for the journey, we effectively slummed it, but the cost so far have been significant.

There are two of us so we need to double transport costs and share the hotel costs.

First leg

I’m pretty familiar with Eurostar. I travelled standard class on 16 November 2024 on the 1758 (retimed from 1801). I was able to work (the new drop down rests for stuff are now a bit wider). There are power sockets – UK and European. I have my own modem/internet for security reasons. The signal was pretty good throughout, including in the tunnel. In the past when I have connected to the Eurostar wifi, it has been pretty unreliable.

It cost me €2.15 to use the Paris Metro/RER to get from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon/Bercy. One can buy a card to load and reuse. Ticket machines take cash and cards.

Second leg

The next day (17 November 2024) we walked for 10 minutes from the hotel to Gare de Lyon and went to Hall 2 from where the trains depart. The QR codes on our phones or paper did not read. There was someone at the barrier to scan using their own reading machine. All good. We had two seats on the upper deck with a collapsible table usable only for the people sat closest to the window. There is a socket and wifi (below left).

The route taken by the train is pretty much rural France, but on reaching the Mediterranean, the scenery changes to on of salt marsh as it precariously meanders through the Parc Naturel Regional de la Narbonnaise (below right). The train is probably the best vantage point for seeing it as the train runs over what seems to be a causeway.

Warning, however, whilst writing this blog entry my case located by the entrance to the carriage was stolen. My advice is either to chain it to the bars or locate your case inside the carriage – there are some internal luggage racks.

The RENFE train to Madrid was directly opposite the arrival platform of the incoming TGV. It was that simple. Though there are a few challenges. We bought our tickets on RailEurope.com. The pdf that is made available on the app is unreadable by anyone with less-than x-ray sight. The train manager had a record of the ticket, so we were fine. It seems also possible to print tickets from ticket machines providing one has a PNR number that was clearly stated on the itinerary confirmation.

We then looked to buy tickets for the next leg, Madrid – Cádiz. We tried the machines – ticket buying by non-Spanish citizens is not so easy. Each traveller needs to insert their passport number. We got so far in the process (give yourself 10 minutes) before we were thrown out of the system whilst trying to pay. We did then find the staffed Renfe ticket office on the first floor and bought them in the traditional way, but passports are still needed. And the ticket office sales person found the system equally cumbersome. Our passport details had to be put in twice!

Then on to the Metro. Two lines, first 1 (blue) to Sol and then 2 (red) to Ventas. Buying tickets is easy, but you have to buy a card and load it with as many journeys as you need. In our case one centre ticket. Each centre area ticket cost €2.50 with the card. For the first charge, I think the card costs €2 (extra). On the way back to the station the following day, 18 November, we just loaded the cards. Note the machines are cashless. We ate in a nearby Lebanese restaurant. Portions were huge – salad, falafel, spicey patata and vegetal mousaka.

The hotel is next to the bull ring (left) – a constant reminder that there are some residual bloodthirsty passions in Europe. (The British as much as the Spanish – though not in such grand areas.)

Third leg

Monday 18 November is another train journey – about 4 ¹/₂ hours to Cádiz. There is a fast and direct service roughly every 3 hours. It think it can also be done in two legs if needed: one to Seville and then Seville – Cádiz. The trains are spacious (standard class). Each seat has a socket (though mine did not work). There is room for a laptop to be opened and used. The wifi on the train is not working. Though my modem is fine. Similar to Paris, Madrid has distinct boarding gates. Passengers are advised to get there 30 minutes before departure – all baggage is scanned (unlike Paris). It takes about 10 minutes to pass through.

Incidentally, I bought a new case at the station, a t-shirt, shirt, a pair of socks and a sweater to keep me going. I discovered that I did have some underwear in my rucksack.

For a change we arrived at our destination in daylight. We checked into our hotel – probably one of the best we have ever enjoyed – the Soho Boutique Hotel. We had a suite. It was sensational. The breakfast was additional, but worth it. The spread was varied ranging from breads, pastries, cereals, cheeses, meats and fruit.

We bought a few more items in the town:

• food to take onboard – correctly assuming that the onboard catering might be a little unapetising
• Some eye protection (my prescription sunglasses were in the stolen case)
• some trousers and a gilet from a male clothing retailer and shorts, leggings, t-shirts and underwear at an unexpected-to-find branch of Decathlon.

We ate in a Latin-inspired restaurant in the town. The restaurant – Más Que La Cresta – is not exclusively vegan, but the options are good. We took a selection of starters as tapas; though the vegan burgers were certainly enticing, burgers are not quite our thing.

Fourth leg

The ferry terminal is about a 15 minute walk from the entrance to the port. Foot passenger enter the office through which they pass security control and then enter a taxi to drive to- and then in-to the ferry. We did not take a cabin – trying to keep down the costs somewhere – so slept in the reclining seat area on deck 7. For the first part of the journey we sat on the deck in the sunshine. The ferry crosses the shipping route from the Mediterranean west. I trust they have some communication and understanding that ferries operate against the dominant shipping route. It is a reminder that the seas are equally colonised by humans. And on the deck, the exhaust from the ferry reminds us that there are still greenhouse gases being expelled into the environment.

The ferry has a small shop that sells the basics – cigarettes and soap. There is a bar/café and then the self- service restaurant. Not much more. It is unlike the ferry to Rotterdam from Hull which has cinemas and a casino (not that a casino is of much interest to us).

Sleeping – without a cabin, there are rows (2-3-2) of reclinable seats on decks 5 and 7 (right). Deck 7 is the quiet level. What we have realised is that this ferry carries some very seasoned travellers, many of them young, who bring mattresses, airbeds, sleeping bags and food to microwave (the restaurant has a public microwave for use). There is no washing up area, though. So the seasoned travellers often sleep horizontally on any available floor (there are signs all around forbidding this, of course). It is, I think, also the case that this is not a party ship. People are here to sleep, not to party (that is probably saved for the islands).

Did I sleep…yes. It was quiet. People slept. Though in the summer it might get more chaotic with so many floor sleeepers. The reclinables are least comfortable, I found, when reclined (they do not recline too much). I reverted to normal position. A pillow of some kind is needed. That doesn’t mean that I am not looking forward to a bed on arrival.

For the day, I was on deck for much of the time (left). The sun was warm and I had a book. Working is not so easy as the ship is really not geared up for business. The sockets are few – and in demand for mobile recharging. There is a small cordoned-off area in the restaurant that could act as a business space. It does have sockets, but I only counted four, and they were not well spaced around the room either. In the end I went to work in the restaurant in-between sittings (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Talking of which, we did take breakfast. It was not bad actually. And not expensive. For €12.50 we had cereal, bread, egg, yoghurt, tortilla and coffee. We are not sure whether it was accurately calculated. But hey.

We were scheduled to dock at midnight…in the end it was 0130 GMT. We were out by about 0200. But what then? Cadiz is easy, the port is adjacent to the town and walkable. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria port is quite large, not walkable and relatively deserted at 0200. There was no shuttle bus, no taxi rank. My beloved was armed with a taxi phone number but more than once – without perfect Spanish – they just put the phone down on us. I walked back to the ferry to ask one of the personnel if they could speak for us. We had a volunteer whose intervention magically summoned a taxi that arrived after about 10 minutes. Uber is on the island – download the app before you travel. Anyway, the drive was approximately 45 minutes – fast because there was little on the roads (which are superior to anything in the UK – not a pothole to be seen). The fare was €90 to San Augustin – 55km. Journey end.

Reflections

I wanted to test the feasibility of getting to the island by land and sea and be productive in the process. Whilst I may be on holiday, I still want to engage in some academic work – I am an academic after all. All travel raises questions that warrant answers. I have never regarded travel time as a waste. I do think my efforts here were thwarted by the transport operators – notwithstanding the theft of a bag. Here are the key challenges:

• Cost – it is significantly more expensive to travel overland than by air. The journey cost overall was £802.14. That is at least eight times what it would cost to fly. We could cut out the hotels – do Paris to Cadiz in a single day starting very early in the morning. That is a tough day and all the connections need to work.
• Time – I wanted to be productive and connected. It was ideal for reading books and academic papers, not so good for writing. Observations:
  • I could not connect to the internet on Renfe between Barcelona and Madrid because users need their ticket number. This was unreadable on my ticket from RailEurope. That said, for security, I use my own dongle with European roaming, which worked fine. I did use about 2¹/₂ Gb.
  • The (un)complementary internet on the ferry was very poor. And because we were sailing, there was no mobile signal (I feared, too, that if there was, it would be Moroccan, and therefore elicit extra roaming costs). I could have bought a better internet package from the operator, though. I did not because I had lost my credit card in the bag theft.
  • As noted, there is no dedicated workspace onboard.
  • Foot passengers on ferries are poorly served. The situation at the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was a problem. There was absolutely no provision for us at the port. And being so late, it leaves stranded passengers vulnerable. This is not universal. Other ferry journeys that we have taken have been better served. Hoek van Holland has its own railway station! Europoort had coaches to take passengers to Rotterdam (or used to).

What needs to be done

1. Sort out ticketing…
   • Buying European train tickets is way too complicated, especially across borders. We used Rail Europe, but the tickets issued were unreadable by station and train staff.
   • Adding to that, buying tickets in Spain either by machine or at a staffed ticket office is slow and cumbersome. Passports are needed for non-Spanish travellers and it can take an inordinate amount of time to get issued with a ticket. On the machines, we twice got ejected and had to start again.
2. Wifi…
   • I am happy to use my dongle for security reasons, but the ferry wifi was poor by any standard. Even basic searching was difficult or impossible. The wifi would shut off in any case after 30 minutes or so and it was necessary to log in again, including reading the terms and conditions.
   • Make provision for work – dedicated space, sockets, reliable wifi. I know the argument – there is no demand. But there is no demand because there is no provision, arguably. Equally, the ferry would be an ideal place for a conference, workshop, briefings, etc.
3. Treat foot passengers with respect. Ensure that they can embark and disembark safely. And do not leave them stranded at a port in the middle of the night. That is truly shocking.

Getting back

We flew back! It was not the original intention, for sure. I made the decision when we got on the ferry from Cádiz. I am not advocating flying – my overland and sea days are not over, far from it. Indeed, the flight was long, cramped, hot and involved airports. However, three key things swung it for me (a further two factors made me feel slightly more sanguine).

1. The timings of ferries back relative to my need to be at my desk on 9 December meant that the time on the island would be much shorter. In order safely to get back by 9 December, I would need to leave the island on 1 December 2024. That ferry is scheduled to be 43 hours. Having taken 5 days to get to the island, to leave after just over a week seemed rather punitive (bearing in mind I am working throughout the period January to August inclusive and this is my summer holiday).
2. The experience getting here was not the best – from having my bag stolen to the facilities on the ferry and the restaurant menus.
3. Cost – I had to spend quite a bit of money replacing some of the things I had lost particularly my clothes.
4. Carbon – I am trying to be a good citizen, but I am not perfect. Though I am reminded by some pioneers of low carbon working of studies relating to carbon generated by flying, in particular the contrast between short haul and long haul. That is not to say that I am going suddenly to start flying again as I had done prior to Covid (i.e. every week). Here is a quote based on work by Frédéric Dobruszkes, Giulo Mattioli and Enzo Gozzoli “flights of less than 500km account for 26.7% of flights, but only 5.2% of fuel burnt; while flights of 4000km or more account for just 5.1% of flights, but 39% of fuel burnt. This tallies with AEF’s (The Aviation Environment Federation) findings that shows that in terms of carbon emitted from flights from the UK to destinations around the world, the worst offenders are indeed long-haul – in top place is the US with 23.6% of the UK’s international flight emissions (10.6Mt), and Dubai with 6.7%.” You can read the summary article, “The Elephant in the Middle Aisle” here.
5. Finally, I picked up an injury in the final week on the island (see later entry) that would have made overland very difficult, painful and dangerous. On that basis, too, I can safely say that disabled travellers are much better served by airlines (though there are some horror stories) than overland across borders and modes.