LU Sustainable Travel Stories

Choosing Sufficiency: Redefining Travel Quality in a Climate Crisis

Written by:
Jessika Luth Richter, Associate senior lecturer, IIIEE, The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics

I decided to stop flying within Europe in 2018, towards the end of my PhD. In part, I was influenced by many of those who have already written sustainable travel blogs here, including Kimberly Nicholas. I had been researching climate and sustainable consumption for years and just couldn’t justify the environmental impacts in a time of climate crisis.

Of course, Covid followed soon after so not flying became the norm for everyone. In 2020, I started working with the EU 1.5° Lifestyles project, in which the project partners pledged to travel as sustainably as possible – to “walk the talk” so to speak. Through the endeavor to travel as sustainably as possible, I have learned a few lessons along the way.

Take it easy on myself and think of time differently

Making a commitment to not flying for work didn’t go as planned from the beginning. My first meticulously planned itinerary from Lund to Helsinki ended before I’d gone even 100km, stopped in Hässleholm due to a fire on the tracks up ahead and no hope of getting to the ferry in Stockholm in the near future. The travel agency apologized and suggested I turn around to Copenhagen and take a flight. I learned quickly to leave some extra time to get to the destinations and build in a working day while travelling and long breaks when switching modes to grab a meal or a quick walk around a city (train stations are great for that – they are almost always in the center of everything). When I know I am going somewhere I book several days on either side in my calendar to avoid scheduling teacher or other on-site activities in case I need to be on route once I figure out my itinerary. Many trains now have wifi and the last train trip on the German ICE train felt like I was in a co-working space – everyone was working and I was compelled to also have a productive working day.

Cup of coffee and chocolate cake. Photo. — A couple of hours in Villach, Austria waiting for a train connection allowed for a quick walk around town and a taste of some local chocolate cake.

Flexibility is needed

Last summer a storm named Polly disrupted all travel to the Netherlands for a project meeting and sustainability conference combined (the project aimed to put the project meetings close to planned conferences if possible). Getting there required heavy use of the public transport apps in finding viable alternative connections. Having those apps to support me had come with a trade-off because my old phone had stopped being able to run them effectively (to be fair, after 7 years) and I had to buy a new phone before the trip to feel that I could handle disruptions if they arose.

Apps were not the only support along the way. Anytime I was interrupted while travelling, I found others in the same situation who helped me too. My travel to a conference in July in Zagreb was only supposed to be three trains and 24 hours. Five trains and 3 days later, I arrived after a lot of troubleshooting but with a group of other conference attendees I had met along the way. I had already met one objective of the conference – I had a great network of sustainability researchers and practitioners. Nothing breaks the ice more than being stranded for hours at an unmanned train station!

Mountains and green fields with yellow flowers. Photo. — A trip to Zagreb disrupted by floods but after three days I made it to my destination. There were some beautiful views along the way once the clouds cleared.

On the one hand, train travel through Europe gets a reputation for being unreliable. Certainly, the travel to project meetings proved the need to be flexible and understanding rights and options as a traveler. However, travelling in weather events interrupted all travel, even flying. On the trip to the Netherlands, it turns out the train was easier than flying when all the transport to and from airports is stopped. Which is to say, travel in general requires flexibility, sustainable travel included.

Determining what is sustainable travel can be tricky

It is important to me as a sustainability researcher to practice what I preach. Yet, even for me there can be times when it is hard to know what actually is the most sustainable option. The second time I was planning to go to Helsinki I was determined to take the train and ferry. At the time, another project I was involved in, Mistra Sustainable Consumption, had just completed a carbon calculator for travel. I tested it and was a bit shocked that my train and ferry trip would be very close in carbon emissions to flying the same route. I read a bit more about it and asked the researchers. The ferry calculations depended on the speed of the ferry, the fuel, and how emissions are allocated between freight and passengers. Considering this, I found that one ferry line between Stockholm and Turku had switched to a more efficient ferry that could potentially use biofuel. I booked an overnight train to Stockholm and then took the ferry to Turku/Åbo. Since it was a day crossing, it was very cheap to book a cabin with wifi as my office for the day. Instead of the night before the conference in Helsinki, I spent the night in Turku/Åbo and commuted to Helsinki in the morning.

Working from the cabin and taking a break on the ferry to Finland (desk not pictured).

Adopting a sufficiency approach to travel

In the last few years, I not only changed the way I traveled in deciding not to fly. I also changed how much I traveled. I now have to choose between conferences in the summer that before I might have flown from one to the other. I definitely experience the fear of missing out syndrome, but I have also found that while the quantity of travelling and meetings has reduced the quality has not. I now collaborate with some researchers that I have never met in person, and it still works.

During lunch at a 1.5 project meeting July in the Netherlands we were all remarking how great the next project meeting in six months was going to be. The meeting was planned at our Spanish partners in A Coruña on the northwest coast of Spain in November to escape the winter gloom. Then we started sharing our initial research on potential travel itineraries. Would we go overnight on a train, daytime on a bus and then overnight again? Or 24 hours on a bus? Some reluctantly admitted they could not attend without flying. The allure of warm sun was fading fast with the realization of the herculean effort and the irony of 20+ researchers flying to Spain to meet about 1.5° lifestyles. Then it was suggested maybe we should just have the meeting online.

So rather than finishing this piece from a train after our 3 day project meeting, I am finishing it from home. My colleagues attended the meeting together from the office and it actually finished early, giving me a bit more time to work on other things. Now instead of a swim in the sea in Spain, I am off to go ice-skating with my son.

Researchers meeting in person in Lund and online with the rest of the consortium. Not the same as Spain, but with its own benefits.

1 December 2023

sustainabletravelstories

This entry was posted in

Comments

1 Comment Leave a comment

Fly less. Yes, you!

Woman outside builing with European Union flags. Photo.

Written by:
Kimberly Nicholas, Senior lecturer, LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)

You already know, dear reader, that if you fly, it’s your biggest source of climate pollution.

Just 1% of the world’s population are regular flyers— and they represent 50% of climate pollution from flights. (I was in that group until I put my frequent flyer card in a museum.) Eeeeeek!

After a big drop in 2020, we see flying rebounding fast right now. But we know that a “recovery” of business-as-usual flying means climate catastrophe. Flying needs to decline, because flying today is at odds with the big-ass reductions in emissions we need to make to avoid blowing all of humanity’s remaining carbon budget in the next 83 months. (ACK!)

A great place to start is to join the Flight Free Campaign, which started here in Sweden. Some chapters, like the UK and US, offer the chance to pledge to go flight-free for a year, to make a significant personal change and work for broader system change. (If work or family commitments mean you can’t go flight-free, you can also pledge to be flight-free for holidays.) Also check out the Stay Grounded campaign.

Some ways to get started or ramp up staying grounded, focusing on work flying:

Start conversations about flying at work, and find at least one person who wants to work towards your organisation flying less.
Get your organisation to use behavioural science to support flying less, following guidance from World Resources Institute to:
- (1) Make virtual easy;
- (2) Use positive social norms and pledges;
- (3) Encourage senior staff to lead new norms by convening explicit travel-reduction conversations; and
- (4) Formalize institutional policies and procedures, like changing budget templates or proposal guidelines.
Ready to dive in? FlyingLessResourcesGuide.info is a one-stop shop for everything from practical guides to hosting low-carbon conferences, to getting your organisation or industry to fly less, to how to push for funders and incentives to support flying less.
Join campaigns and communities like FlyingLess.org, which has fabulous resources and stories for academics flying less.
Here’s 4 minutes of me talking about how our department is going about flying less, and here’s a whole podcast on Flying Less!
Make institutional guidance like the Tyndall Centre decision tree to prioritise flights, and start conversations about equity. (Flying is usually distributed very unequally within organisations; their guidelines prioritise flights for younger and less advantaged scholars.)
Get inspired by others who are already leading the way- like these universities who have implemented or are planning measures.

EuroTour23

I stopped flying within Europe in 2012. In fall 2023, I took a 3-week, 9-country overland tour, mostly by train, to give a series of talks and join meetings with policymakers, researchers, and climate communicators. Here are a few photo highlights.

Map of route in Europe. Illustration. — Map of my Eurotrip September-October 2023.

Woe — EuroTour -23 begins! First trip Lund –> Oslo.

Take away food. Photo. — Ideal: bring homemade lunch in reusable container. Reality: I’m running out of the door after frantically packing and buying food to go. Still, eating plant based saves more emissions than meat in reusable container.

Woman on ferry. Photo. — Hej då Oslo! On overnight ferry from Oslo to Kiel, Germany. Planned a review paper with colleagues on flying less and well-being.

Obligatory selfie while biking in Paris with Eiffel Tower in the background.

The text was first published in Kim’s newsletter, We Can Fix It, on facing the climate crisis with facts, feelings, and action. See the archives and subscribe.

The mobility to Paris was supported by the French Embassy in Sweden.

6 November 2023

sustainabletravelstories

This entry was posted in

conference europe night train train

Comments

0 Comments Leave a comment

FlyWell

Written by:
Max Koch, Professor, School of Social Work

I took my last flight from Alicante to Copenhagen in February 2013 to teach on an EU Intensive Programme. I had taken the train to Alicante but felt not to have enough time for the journey back to Lund. Prior to this, and after a longer dialogue with my wife Eileen Laurie, I had added the environmental aspect to my previous research interest in capitalist development and its impact on welfare systems and the social structure. I came to feel that doing research on the environment and the climate emergency in an ethical way meant that I needed to carry out research with an as low ecological footprint as possible.

Just before my last flight I had published a book entitled Capitalism and Climate Change: Theoretical Discussion, Historical Development and Policy Solutions. This book included a short analysis of the academic field of the time. Flying for academic reasons had already then little to do with knowledge diffusion – this could and can be done with the help of communication technology – but, instead, with the accumulation of symbolic academic capital to use the terminology of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu: the further one could convince his or her employer or funder to travel (usually by plane), the greater the perceived value of that researcher and, hence, the symbolic profit. Conversely, choosing and attending local conferences smacked of the parochial and provincial.

While the existence of this blog suggests that it became more legitimate in the meantime to carry out research without flying, it is also true that there are still many researchers (including sustainability researchers) who would argue that the importance of their research somewhat overcompensates their high-carbon mode of working.

I have not regretted my decision taken ten years ago to stop flying for business and private reasons (except for emergencies, which thankfully have not happened so far). If anything, it has made my life easier: I came to choose projects in Sweden or neighbouring countries that are easily reachable by train, bus or sometimes ferry. However, on occasions I travel further using night-trains – once as far as Lisbon.

But quite often, when I receive requests for talks etc. it has either to be local, online or my answer is “no”. I recognize that saying “no” to things is easier for a senior researcher and that early-career researchers may well not have the freedom to choose. At the same time, I believe that academic careers in the climate emergency should be planned and proceed in different ways than when I began my research career.

For this to happen, it is of course paramount to be in an academic environment that does not promote flying and individual competition with regard to symbolic academic capital, but instead encourages and supports academic productivity that has the lowest environmental cost.

(Sustainability) researchers have a role to play in helping to question and overcoming fossil infrastructures within and beyond the academic field. In a new research project entitled “FlyWell” (Flying less and well-being: Engaging Norwegians in reducing the flight intensity of social practices) PI Mònica Guillén-Royo, her colleagues from CICERO and I are going to meet representatives from public organisations including the Norwegian Football Association, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation as well as from the academic sector to collectively reflect on current fossil and alternative more sustainable communication and mobility patterns. These would need to include a drastic reduction of flying if meeting the Paris Climate targets are supposed to be more than a pipedream. Perhaps such a critical reflection on social practices and the initiation of corresponding change can be of value also for Swedish academia and society!

Project FlyWell: FlyWell: how to reduce air travel and at the same time maintain a high quality of life. — Lunds universitet

Portrait Max Koch. Photo. — Max Koch, Professor, School of Social Work

30 August 2023

sustainabletravelstories

This entry was posted in

staying at home

Comments

0 Comments Leave a comment

Summer School in Wimereux

Written by:
Emma Enström, Doctoral student, Centre for Environmental and Climate Science

When my application to a summer school in Blue Carbon was approved in May, I realized that I would be going to France this summer!

My last flight was to Bangkok in 2019, where I did an internship at Sida, working with climate and environment in Asia and the Oceania. The internship left me with so much climate anxiety, I decided to take the train back to Stockholm. Since that month of travelling back to Sweden, less than 24 hours on the train feel like a blast. Since Lund University have been testing a new booking agency for train travel, I felt even more eager to go by train and not have to spend too much of my time as a PhD diving into the train schedule of Europe.

The train journey took less than 22 hours, going from Malmö at 11pm, arriving in Calais 9pm the next day. I had time to see the landscape of Germany and the Cologne Cathedral, have a snack in Brussels, and read the last articles I planned to read before the summer, before arriving in the beautiful town of Wimereux on the Opal Coast. I then had a week of lectures and bonding with PhD:s from all over Europe while taking morning swims, evening walks and wine tasting during school lunch.

Going back home after two weeks vacation in Paris, Bourgogne and the Alps was not as hyped as the travel down. However, just as simple with only two changes in Karlsruhe and Hamburg. The travel down from Malmö to Hamburg was extremely well planned, going to bed at 11pm in Malmö, and waking up 9am in Hamburg. However, the travel back is mostly planned for the people arriving in Stockholm at 9am. This means that the people of Malmö only get six hours sleep, getting off at 4am at the station. This time, our train was late, with expected arrival changing at least twice. A fatal mistake was then made when our slightly late train stopped at a platform 4.15. The stop, a night with less sleep than usual and the fear of accidentally going to Lund instead of Malmö made me jump off…

At Kastrup. So close.

Luckily the Öresundstrain saved me half an hour later!

Person walking along the coast. Photo. — One of many walks looking at the view.

Small town by the coast. Photo — The windy town Wimereux.

22 August 2023

sustainabletravelstories

This entry was posted in

europe night train train

Comments

0 Comments Leave a comment

Reflections from travelling from Malmö to Paris by train

Written by:
Michelle Ochsner, Doctoral student, Transport and Roads, LTH

As someone whose research is focused on not only railway transportation but the impacts of weather and climate change on rail infrastructure itself, I admit that I have flown an embarrassing number of times over the last few years. My biggest shame is even flying to Dublin to attend the European Climate Change Conference. And even though some joke that by flying I am ensuring my future job security I feel the effects of ‘Flygskam’ or flight shame more and more. Growing up in Canada train travel isn’t really any option or at least no one I know has ever even tried. I spent most summers visiting my grandparents in Switzerland mesmerised by the perfect, punctual, seamless rail network (rest of Europe please take notes). It wasn’t until a colleague asked me why do you always fly to Switzerland from Copenhagen? and catching up with a fellow rail researcher from KTH at the World Congress of Railway Research in Birmingham last June 2022 who took the train from Stockholm to Birmingham that I slowly began to more seriously consider the possibility of taking more long distance train travel in Europe. More and more friends of me have started doing the same as well. Going from Copenhagen to Budapest or Valencia to visit friends or family or doing more summer Interrail trips. So, I thought this really is the time to change my habits.

I always had the rule that I would not fly within Sweden or Denmark but at the beginning of this year I decided that I would not fly expect to Canada; which I am ashamed to say did not work. However, a slightly shifted goal landed me on a rule to not fly to any destination where I could take the train within 1-2 days. An invitation to a workshop at French rail company SNCF on June 29^th, 2023, seemed like the perfect opportunity to put this adjusted goal into action. I always enjoyed travelling by train as a kid and I thought to myself I have to work anyways so why not from a train rather than my office and really see my research in action! I was able to book a 4-day Interrail pass which gives so much flexibility for choosing the route that works best for you. In this case it also was almost the same cost as flying. So double win. If you are a pessimist like me this flexibility also means scheduling long change over times between trains. I spend most of my working days in an office with people who research all sorts of reasons for trains being late, from maintenance scheduling to infrastructure failures, to passenger behaviour, and spending a lot of time outside work in my free time listening to people complain about trains being so unreliable, so you can’t blame me.

I started my journey on the night train from Malmö to Hamburg, which I must say I was so pleased to see packed with people and fully booked. I hear often how unreliable trains are and how much more expensive they are compared to flying which I admit is often the main reasons for me choosing to fly over the train. Once you are in Hamburg there are so many options to travel around Europe. You can go to Munich and then catch a night train to Rome or Zagreb. Head over towards London or even go directly to Budapest. I can highly recommend using the Deutsche Bahn website for checking connections and possibilities to travel by train around Europe or the Rail Planner app from Interrail. Once I reached Hamburg it was an easy hop over to Cologne, and then a direct Cologne to Paris connection. Or so I thought. The Cologne to Paris connection was cancelled due to an unannounced strike, which actually never even happened. This really stressed me out but luckily due to my Interrail there was flexibility to hop on other trains. One thing to be mindful of is seat reservations, which some routes require you to book, such Eurostar trains and of course the Thayls train between Cologne and Paris. It seemed the rest of the trains to Paris were fully booked for the rest of the day and I was unsure of how to continue. I decided to continue on to Brussels and see what happened from there. The Flixbus was still an option to carry on in the worst case however I just decided to ask the station manager of the next Brussels to Paris train if there really weren’t any seats left. Luckily, he let myself and two other Interrailers on who were in the same position as me. So, hurray, it was off to Paris. On the way home it was a rather smooth journey, starting the day at 7:30 and getting home just after midnight.

I’ll admit it’s not always easy (cue spending an unexpected night in Hamburg on my way back to Malmö from Switzerland last Christmas and this trip’s cancelled journey between Cologne and Paris) but if you stay open minded and go with the flow it’s always an adventure, and hey it is always an interesting conversation starter at your meeting or conference. I plan to continue to choose rail for more future business and personal travel. And hope to work up to my ultimate goal to travel by surface travel back home to Vancouver, Canada from Malmö only via surface modes of transport, and encourage more people to choose trains over planes along the way. Finally, to honour an ongoing rivalry in my division, trains are also always better than busses 😊

Church towers, Kölner Dom. — Some time in Cologne to admire the Kölner Dom.

Train at train station. — Frankfurt train station.

16 August 2023

sustainabletravelstories

This entry was posted in

conference europe train

Comments

0 Comments Leave a comment

A year without academic travel

David Larsson Heidenblad in front of a book shelf. Photo: Gisela Lindberg, Lund University — David decided that the academic year 2022-2023 would be a year completely free from work trips and evening events.

Written by:
David Larsson Heidenblad, Associate Professor, Department of History

Last summer, I re-read computer scientist Radhika Nagpal’s classic article “The Awesomest 7-year Postdoc or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tenure Track Faculty Line” (Scientific American, 2013). It is a personal and inspiring – but above all practical – text on how to concretely combine a demanding family life with an academic career at an elite American university. At the time of writing, Nagpal was working at Harvard and she is now a professor at Princeton. She has neither the same gender nor the same cultural background as most of her colleagues. So what is the secret?

Part of her solution was to set limits on how often she could do certain things. For example, she decided on the maximum number of committees she could sit on in a year, the number of review missions she could do and the number of times she could travel for work. Once she had reached one of her various quotas, she could not take on any more work of that kind, no matter how tempting.

With this system in place, she managed to become extremely restrictive. If you have five professional trips a year, you can’t accept every external invitation that comes your way. Most workshops and conferences are out of bounds. You just have to embrace the ‘joy of missing out’ (JOMO).

For me, the travel quota was an eye-opener. By the time I returned to Nagpal’s text, I had booked five trips in August-September alone. This was the same period as my wife began her final year of training as a judge and our middle child, who has autism and an intellectual disability, would start special school. Two things I knew would put pressure on us as a family. What had I been thinking? My gut feeling was not good. I decided that the academic year 2022-2023 should be a year completely free from work trips and evening events. I started writing emails. Canceling, dropping out, asking if things could be done via Zoom instead.

How did it go?

Once I had made the decision, it seemed natural. There were no negative reactions from colleagues either. Quite the opposite. To be honest, it felt quite liberating.

I can count on one hand the number of exceptions to my self-induced travel policy. It was not always easy to follow the plan. But it always felt right. Because at home I could really feel how much easier life was when good margins were in place. And as the saying goes: “If things don’t work at home, things don´t anywhere else either”.

Has this had a negative impact on my career? Well, it’s hard to say. I think conferences and travel are mainly about building and maintaining relationships. And that can be done in other ways. This year I have been more proactive in meeting people in the Lund-Malmö area. There have been many nice lunches! I’ve also made sure to organize things and invite people I want to meet to come. I also take the opportunity to meet people when they happen to be around.

Also, Zoom meetings, email exchanges and a blog are pretty good ways to keep social things going. So no, at this stage of my life and career, I wouldn’t say that a year without academic travel has been much of a sacrifice.

15 June 2023

sustainabletravelstories

This entry was posted in

family staying at home

Comments

0 Comments Leave a comment

54 hours one way to join a job meeting on Mallorca

A woman with a rucksack in front of a train. Photo. — Emma Kritzberg travelled for five days return to participate at a job meeting on Mallorca. Photo: Johan Persson

Emma Kritzberg, professor at the Department of Biology, took the train to a meeting on Mallorca. A journey that took 54 hours and cost double what it would have to fly a couple of hours to the Mediterranean island. Yet, flying was never an option. She has not flown once for work or privately in the last six years, a conscious decision she took to reduce her carbon footprint.

Interview with Emma and more details about her journey – staff.lu.se

A train station in Paris. Photo. — The most beautiful train station on the journey – Gare de l’Est in Paris. Photo: Emma Kritzberg

The ocean and land in the distance. Photo. — The view from the ferry overlooking Palma de Mallorca. Photo: Emma Kritzberg

A woman eating an ice cream. Photo. — Springtime calls for an ice cream. Photo: Emma Kritzberg

14 June 2023

sustainabletravelstories

This entry was posted in

conference europe night train train

Comments

0 Comments Leave a comment

From Höör to Dublin

Written by:
Lina Herbertsson, Researcher, Biology

With a mobility grant from Formas, I had planned to perform parts of my four-year project at UC Dublin. I have a family and wouldn’t go without them, but luckily Formas mobility grant supports the increased travel and living costs, including school fees, for bringing the family.

The first time we took the train to Dublin was in July 2019 when the project started. By this time, we only had one child. When we returned in October 2021, we had two kids and were in the middle of a pandemic. We wouldn’t let these conditions force us to fly, but crossing Europe by train with a baby and a seven-year-old, during an ongoing pandemic, certainly required some preparations. We carried valid PCR results, a bunch of face masks and Passenger Locator Forms for several countries, and we struggled to stay updated with the covid restrictions of each country.

We had no reason to worry. When we – two days later – arrived in Dublin, we had enjoyed live swing music and dancing in Copenhagen, sushi with good old friends in London, coffees, juices, and cakes at stations along the way, two movie nights on the train, and Frozen II on the ferry between Wales and Ireland. And the only time our oldest child had asked if we weren’t there yet was before we reached Malmö.

How to make travelling with kids fun

When I decided to stop flying, I also decided to make our train journeys a more exciting alternative. We usually try not to hurry, but to have time for an extra ice cream or some fun in the cities along the way. On the train, we draw, read stories, and play games. As the evenings can be challenging when travelling with children, we make each evening a proper movie night, with a good movie and surprise snacks.

The most beautiful way to Dublin

We have taken the train to Dublin twice and we hope to do it soon again. With the new night train to Hamburg, it is possible to leave Skåne in the evening and arrive in London – or Paris, if the schedule allows a little detour – the next evening. The highspeed trains connecting London with the mainland arrive at St Pancras station, an impressive Victorian Gothic building from the 19^th century. Within walking distance, you’ll find Camden Town where loads of people enjoy street food and a couple of beers along Regent’s canal. From London the trip continues to Chester and along the Welsh coast with an astonishing view over lush green hills, old castles and the sea. The train takes you all the way to the isle of Anglesey where the entire coastline has been classified Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The train’s end station is Holyhead, from where the ferry takes you the last bit across the Irish sea to Dublin.

Parents and a child at train station in Höör. Photo: Lina Herbertsson.

St Pancras Station, London. Photo: Lina Herbertsson.

Camden, London. Photo: Lina Herbertsson.

Family at a restaurant. Photo: Lina Herbertsson.

River and mountains. Photo: Lina Herbertsson.

7 June 2023

sustainabletravelstories

This entry was posted in

europe family night train train

Comments

0 Comments Leave a comment

Interrailing in Europe with a Conference Poster

Alp view from a regional train in Switzerland. Photo. — Alp view from a regional train in Switzerland.

Written by:
Linnea Lindh, Doctoral student, Chemical Physics

Last summer I was going to a conference in Switzerland. The same summer, me and my friends were planning an interrail trip through Germany, Slovenia and Croatia. Instead of going on two long-distance train travels, I decided it would be beneficial to put them back-to-back. This would save me time and money (but not be very good for my poster as you will see). Luckily, it worked out with my friends’ schedule to put the interrail trip just before the conference! So when they travelled home, I continued from Slovenia to Switzerland.

I actually decided to go from Slovenia (Ljubljana) to Italy (Milano) via night-bus, and then enter Switzerland from there. From time to time I travel by night buses, due to their very low price and ability to travel long distances without change. It is however not the option for those who desire to travel with great comfort. In my travel-plans, I had scheduled the whole next day for just arriving to the conference location (Lausanne), so having one rough night did not ruin my conference experience. Something to think about when travelling with buses is that they might not run from the same stations as the trains, so remember to check this in advance.

In Switzerland, you buy tickets from the Swiss railway company that is called SBB or CFF or FFS depending on which language you speak. SBB (which is the German name that I will use) has a wonderful map on their webpage, outlining all stations and routes included in their system. And amazingly, you can buy ONE TICKET called a “day pass” and just travel as much as you like. All trains and even boats are included only with some rare exceptions such as tourist panorama trains. If you buy this pass well in advance, it also costs much less, which gives you very high flexibility in your travel to a surprisingly low cost. The SBB app is also good for buying the tickets, just remember that since Switzerland is not part of the EU, you need to check with your phone operator what deal you can have for getting internet there.

Alp view without the tourist panorama train

Since I had a full day to get to Lausanne, I thought why not go around a bit. The first leg of my travel was to cross the alps, which you could do quickly by going through a tunnel. That I definitely did not want to do. Instead I took a small regional train up to a village on top of the alps, and what a view! I had never before experienced trains going in loops to be able to gain the needed height. Also never had I seen such turquoise alp lakes hiding in the valleys between the mountain tops. Even when travelling by a regional train, I could see a lot through big windows, and I am sure there was less people than in the tourist panorama train. The train ride across the alps also highlighted that Switzerland is a country of many languages. The train conductor who had just asked for tickets in perfect Italian, now instead spoke perfect German after we had crossed a small tunnel in the mountains. To say the least a rare experience compared to travelling in Sweden or Germany.

Bridge over river seen from a train window. Photo. — Train coming into the city of Luzern, Switzerland.

Unexpected meeting in Lausanne

After travelling in the alps and also next to many of the beautiful Swiss lakes, I decided it was time to head for Lausanne. At the main station in Lausanne, looking for the metro, I was stopped by a British gentleman. He had seen me travelling with a backpack featuring a now quite worn poster, and asked if we perhaps were going to the same place. After travelling a full day and night, my brain did not figure out that this was a professor in my field that I definitely should have recognized. This became embarrassingly obvious on the metro ride towards the conference location, where also my hotel was. But, being a true gentleman, this of course did not make him upset and I will now apply for postdoc grants together with the professor who saved me in the metro!

Backpacking with a paper poster

Some piece of advice from my side: always print your poster on fabric! I had at some point during covid-times made a “preliminary” poster which I printed on paper, since I thought this would only be used at a local meeting in Lund anyway. The preliminary status however turned into my most used and permanent poster as a PhD student… But backpacking with a paper poster meant quite some wear and tear. My poster at the time of the conference was not in a good shape, but luckily I could buy some tape and mend it together. It however clearly stuck out from the rest of the posters in a charming way.

Worn scientific poster. Photo. — My worn poster, patched together at the conference.

Especially affected customer

After having taken the mandatory picture of the solar cell wall at EPFL and convinced the British professor that I was not always confused, it was time to go home. I had it all figured out; first I would take a train to Zürich, then an ÖBB night jet to Hamburg and finally the normal train ride through Denmark. Since I am a pessimistic person who likes to play it safe, I can easily plan 2 hours change time for important connections, such as those of a costly night train. This is especially important if tickets are bought from separate companies, as they then will not be obliged to help you if you miss the connection. The likelihood of travelling on a delayed train in Switzerland is however low, which some Swiss persons in the conference assured me and I also experienced with even regional mountain trains keeping the timetable to the minute. But, when I was travelling home it suddenly happened. A COMPLETE STOP between Fribourg and Bern, which I had to cross to get to Zürich. It was not possible to pass by train, and the whole country went into complete chaos. I got extremely stressed and headed for the SBB office, facing a queue of 20-30 people ahead of me. My brain calculated the chance of getting to the night train in time as very minor… But, this was after all Switzerland where they are proud of their train system and make sure to plan also for bad incidents such as this one. After only waiting 10 minutes it was my turn, and I, together with a small family who had a connecting flight, were prioritized as especially affected customers. Therefore SBB paid a taxi for us going past the problematic area, and we could from there find a train taking us to Zürich. Luckily for me the 2 hours change time came in handy, and I safely made it to the night train home.

Travelling with ÖBB, the Austrian railway, is often not a nice experience. But, they seem to run most of the central European night trains, so there is not much of a choice. This time it went smoothly, with only a small delay, some confusion with an exchanged room, and some dripping water into my bed… Only minor things considering travelling with ÖBB in my experience. I got to practice my German, sharing sleeping cart with an Austrian girl, and even got a decent breakfast. All-in-all a good backpacking-interrail adventure had come to its end. And I have now promised myself I need to let my poster retire and make a new one, this time in fabric.

Train at train station. Photo. — Train station in Luzern.

Sandwich, yoghurt and juice at table. Photo. — Breakfast in the night train from Zürich to Hamburg.

Building with solar cells. Photo. — SwissTech Convention Center at the EPFL campus. The building is covered in dye-sensitized solar cells.

7 June 2023

sustainabletravelstories

This entry was posted in

conference europe night train train

Comments

0 Comments Leave a comment

The Bottle-neck: Travelling between Copenhagen and Europe

View of the entrance to the Wandelhalle, Hamburg Hauptbahnhof. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. — Wandelhalle, Hamburg Central Station.

Written by:
Lars Nieradzik, Researcher, Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science

It is widely known but there might still be people who haven’t heard yet: There are EU passenger’s rights for railroad travellers as there are for air travel within Europe, which means:

25% ticket price return on 60-119 minutes delay at final destination*
50% return on 120 minutes or more*.
*Unless due to an Act-of-God or a third person’s unlawful interference.

On top of that, the travel agency has to make sure you arrive at your destination and is responsible for accommodation etc in the case of a major disruption/delay. But, this only works if you book the whole trip at once! VERY IMPORTANT! And that is why I recommend to book every train journey to and through Germany, and that will be most of them unless you stay in the Nordic countries, with Deutsche Bahn (DB; be it on the website or via the app).

I have been doing this on a monthly basis now for many years and overall is has been working fine. After Covid, though, there has been a notable increase in rail travel compared to before and a major – if not THE – bottleneck for leaving Scandinavia by train is the connection between Copenhagen and Hamburg, the latter acting as a gateway between Northern Europe and “the rest”. You will quickly get a feeling of affection when you see Hamburg’s iconic “Wandelhalle”, the central station hall. However, especially for the main travel times like summer or Christmas tickets will sell out quickly and there is nothing more frustrating than having to change your travel plans or even choose a flight instead. Option 3 is to not have a seat for about 6 hours, but, I promise, you won’t do this too many times 🙂 The second thing on booking early is that you can get quite a discount (SuperSparpreis/Sparpreis Europa) but, beware, there are quotas on these, i.e. once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Two modes of travel

There are a couple of things of interest when travelling with DB and I would like to introduce you to the two modes of travel that I normally choose between:

1. Play it safe.
2. Take a chance.

Obviously, option 1) is for when you really need to be at your destination in time, 2) is a gamble between fastest travel and some compensation for a missed connection.

But HOW do you choose? Well, the tricks lie between the lines. Once you entered your travel details and hit the search button you’ll see a list of possible connections. Click on the “Show details” link below one that seems reasonable and you will see another link reading “Adjust transfer time” for each station you have to change trains. Here you can either choose to arrive at that station earlier or leave on a later train plus how much of a lay-over you wish. Once you have adjusted these, you can find a new, tailored connection at the bottom of the list of offered connections.

I almost always go for option 2) when going south. First of all, it worked for me in about 90% of my trips from Malmö to Köln, including a changing time of 7 min in Hamburg (challenging but doable and trains might wait a little, see below; also, check Skånetrafiken ahead of travels for possible hick-ups in the Swedish system). Secondly, there are trains to every major German city from Hamburg at least every hour during daytime and you might get some compensation. If you’re going North, though, I’d recommend a little bit more of a buffer in Hamburg (at least 30 min) as your next train is probably going two hours later (if at all) and it might already be fully booked. It can be disappointing if you booked wisely and planned a trip with ample pauses for food and a leg-stretcher when in the end delays eat up all your buffers and you still have to run for your connections without being compensated. Remember though: At least you arrived and you had a seat! That is worth a lot 🙂

I only ever once had to spend a night in Hamburg because I missed the last train to CPH and it wasn’t as funny as it might seem. You’ll have to find and book a hotel for yourself and DB will only compensate you for 80€/person/night for accommodation. But: keep your dinner/lunch bills, I got them reimbursed (i.e. don’t book Hotel w/ breakfast as that might break your 80€ allowance; have it reimbursed separately!).

In case you anticipate a missing connection at your next location of change (because you are keeping track of real-time information on the bahn-app!), tell the train attendant ahead of time which connection you’re about to miss. Depending on the amount of travellers with the same destination, the connecting train might wait a couple of minutes. This has worked especially well in Hamburg when travelling North. The Copenhagen connection often waits for 10-15 minutes and usually catches up with the delay until Padborg. A final note on the purchase of online tickets: Every (!) ticket purchased online (app or website) can be cancelled at no cost within the first 12 hours, i.e. you get the full price back.

More info about refunds at bahn.com

Man sitting in nature with mountains in the background. — Lars Nieradzik

7 June 2023

sustainabletravelstories

This entry was posted in

europe train

Comments

2 Comments Leave a comment

A Night of Comfort and Adventure: My Experience on the Stockholm Night Train

Written by:
Carys Egan-Wyer, Senior Lecturer, Marketing, School of Economics and Management

Why did you take the night train?

It all started when I was invited to Stockholm to present some research findings at Svenskt Handels Hus. To be honest, I wasn’t super enthusiastic about going. However you go about it, travelling from Malmö (where I live) to Stockholm is likely to take a huge chunk out of at least one work day, if not two. The train takes 4-5 hours each way and flying might seem quicker but, by the time you get yourself to the airport in good time, and transport yourself into the city at the other end, I think ends up taking just as much time.

In addition, the timing of this trip was particularly unlucky because Beyoncé and I were both going to be in Stockholm at the same time (if for slightly different reasons). Perhaps the hotels were all booked up because people were flocking to the city to hear about my research. I’m not sure. But it was really hard to find anywhere to sleep in the city centre. And what was available was really expensive.

The solution to both problems was suggested by my brilliant husband. I should take the night train to Stockholm! I wouldn’t waste any of my work day. I would have a cosy place to sleep. And, I would be making a great choice for the environment by taking the train rather than flying. Win-win-win!

How did it go?

I chose a private first-class cabin so I wouldn’t need to share a sleeping space with any snorers. The first class cabins also come with a little toilet and shower room. And fresh towels and bedding. All I had to do was to show up at 10.30, in my pyjamas with my heatless curlers in (I’m not joking—I actually cycled to the station in PJs and curlers) and get into bed. Bliss!

When I boarded, the cabin was set up for sitting and working with a little fold-away work desk and convenient lamps. But I just had to fold the table away, slide the seat cushions up, put my phone on charge, and I was ready for bed. You get a proper duvet and two pillows and, once that train started rolling I was off to the land of nod…zzz

Actually, that isn’t totally true, there was a baby in the adjacent cabin who was having a tough night, so I pressed the call button and the conductor moved me to another room instantly, no questions asked. Then, I was off to the land of nod…zzz

The night train goes more slowly than the regular day time train so that it doesn’t get to Stockholm too soon. It arrived at 5.30 am but, since Stockholm was the final destination, there was no rush to get off the train. I took my time removing my curlers, showering, and getting ready for a day of work. Then I cruised over to the Clarion Continental hotel across the street from the Central Station for the breakfast that’s included in the price of a first class train ticket. By 7.15, I was well-rested, well-fed, raring to go, and already in the heart of Stockholm City. It was a 10 minute walk to Svensk Handels Hus, where I would give my presentation.

What did it cost?

Sleeping in the train instead of a hotel, made a huge difference to the cost of the trip. Hotel prices for this trip were especially high because of the extra demand (from people travelling to Stockholm to see ~~me present my research~~ Beyoncé performing) but even when demand is more normal, I think hotel prices in Stockholm are a stretch for many research budgets so it was a nice bonus that taking the train reduced the cost of trip by almost half. Note that I booked these prices last minute. If you are more organised than me, you can probably do better.

Could you really shower in that tiny bathroom?

Okay, I’ll be honest. It wasn’t the most luxurious shower I have ever had. The water pressure was a bit low. But it worked perfectly well to freshen up before going to work. I showered and washed my hair in the evening before I got on the train so I’d recommend doing the same.

Did you feel safe?

Absolutely! I could lock my cabin from the inside and there were also little key cards in the cabin so I could lock it from the outside too. Each cabin is also fitted with a button to call the conductor in case of emergency (like crying babies)!

Would you travel like this again?

100% yes! I really liked the sense of adventure and it was super convenient. Feel free to reach out in the comments section if you have specific questions that I haven’t covered here. You can also watch a short video I made on the night train. Unfortunately, I had already removed my curlers when I filmed it!

7 June 2023

sustainabletravelstories

This entry was posted in

night train stockholm sweden train

Comments

0 Comments Leave a comment

Edinburgh and back

Map of Europe, route from Lund to Edinburgh. Illustration. — David's route from Lund to Edinburgh.

Written by: David Alcer, Doctoral student, Department of Physics

To travel is often seen as a core activity of our society. For work or for leisure, travelling for many of us constitutes an important part of our lives. Particularly in academia, which builds on international collaborations, travelling far distances – in many cases by flight – can often seem a necessity. At the same time, we are facing an unprecedented crisis that undermines the very foundations of our societies. It is a complicated situation to live in a society which still normalizes flying and encourages travelling – and try to balance this with an understanding of the consequences of the ongoing climate catastrophe. It can easily leave us in a state of cognitive dissonance in which we try to justify our actions for ourselves although we know that we are bending our conscience and closing our eyes to the consequences. For me, it felt very liberating to decide for permanently staying on the ground. This may initially sound surprising, but having restricted my travelling options to those that leave me with a clean conscience yields a powerful feeling of freedom.

A step towards responsibility

My most recent travel endeavour was for a project meeting in the EU project InsectNeuroNano that I’m currently working for. Meeting all collaborators in Edinburgh was a great experience, both infusing our work with plentiful of new ideas and perspectives, and building social connections. But for me, this journey got even more valuable by all the experiences I made during the travelling itself. Finding a good connection was a little challenging – I can recommend bahn.de as a search engine for European tickets, although I ended up booking some parts of the journey via other train companies as well. The train ride experience was worth this work many times over! Among others, it gave me plenty of time to listen to podcasts (I strongly recommend “Klimatpodden”, it’s in Swedish though) while watching the landscape zoom past. With layovers in London and Amsterdam I had a chance to visit friends I hadn’t seen in a while. In Amsterdam, it was an overnight stay – just enough time to eat home cooked dinner and have a beer together in the evening. At my friends place in London I stayed for an amazing weekend. These meetups, as well as the meeting in Edinburgh, have given me plenty of thoughts to contemplate on while sitting back and enjoying the view on the train ride back home to Lund.

As climate researchers remind us periodically, the choices we make in this decade will determine the fate of humanity. All of us have a moral responsibility. My train travel to Edinburgh left me with the encouraging feeling of having taken a first step towards living up to that responsibility.