Choosing Modes of Transport

It is unnecessary to list all the different modes of transportation but I had wanted to write in this blog about some of the choices we made in choosing our travel options. Obviously, if you are on an island the choices to get off that island are limited, otherwise there is not only the choice of how to get from A to B but also which company to use.

Once we were on mainland Europe we travelled by train or bus (coach). This is because the depots are in town, usually within walking distance of the center and you don’t need to get to the station until 15 minutes before departure. Compare that with a flight. The airport is usually a little out of town so you have to add on the time to get to and from the airport plus however much time you need to get to the airport in advance, bus or train makes more sense.

So how to choose? Sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was toss a coin. Although you would think that Google Maps would be a great resource, it wasn’t as useful as you would expect. And using it on a phone was a different experience to using the web version on a laptop. And ferries were not included as an option in most cases. Results differ if you input address to address or station to station. But Google Maps is a good starting point as you can see how far apart two places are and if there are any places between your A and B that you might want to stop at.

An internet search will come up with many blogs/websites/YouTubes of people’s travels, which can be interesting if they are relating their experiences or really want you to use their affiliate links or use their travel services. Through searching I found a travel blog describing a couple’s experience of the Flam Railway which impressed what I was beginning to think that it wasn’t going to work for us this trip. But searching also came up with a better way (for us) to travel from Belfast to Glasgow. I did find that individual blogs were train centric.

The first thing I would look at is if the journey is direct or requires a change. A direct journey should have less problems. After that I look at total journey time. For shorter journeys, there is often not much difference between the travel time by train or bus. I will also look at departure and arrival time and how that fits in with our accommodations. And then I look at cost. Yes, cost is not my first thought. You’d think that as the mode of transport is not changing (i.e. the train is the same regardless of price) that cost would be my first consideration but all the other factors are important considerations in choosing if it is worth paying more.