Who am I?
My name is Michael Birtles, I ran a successful train travel company for over over 25 years and received many complementary testimonials. Now retired, I am eager to share my passion for train travel in Europe with a new audience. As we come out of the Coronavirus pandemic, train travel has an exciting future as the green way to travel. More than that you enjoy a unique window on the world and get to meet local people.
Why Switzerland?
Trains in Switzerland are renowned for their reliability. Together with buses and boats it offers a unique integrated travel system. To reach Geneva by train from London with one change in Paris takes around 7 hours, return fares start from £130 if you book ahead. A Swiss pass for 3 days travel in Switzerland costs from £236 – 3, 8 and days available. You can buy a 4 day Interrail pass for Europe including return travel from London from £325. For more information see the Seat 61 site https://www.seat61.com/Switzerland.htm#london-to-geneva-by-train
Geneva.
I feel like I’m coming to my second home, Geneva is so clean and organised with a beautiful setting of gracious lakeside villas and sailing on the lake. Geneva is a leading global centre for banking and watch making. It is also a worldwide centre for diplomacy due to the presence of numerous international organisations including the headquarters of many agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross.
The famous Jet d’eau (water jet) is a spectacular fountain in the Lake of Geneva. A good place to view it is from the ferry landing stage of Mont Blanc on Lake Geneva,, a 15 minute walk from the main station. You can take ferries from here to the charming French medieval village of Yvoire and to other Swiss lakeside towns such as Lausanne and Montreux which are included in the Swiss Pass. For further information about ferries on Lake Geneva see https://www.cgn.ch/en/
CERN is a world class physics research facility founded after the Second World War. It is the birthplace of the World Wide Web invented by Tim Berners-Lee and home to the Hadron Collider. For more information about visiting see https://visit.cern/guided-tours-individuals.
See my in depth guide to Geneva https://traintraveloracle.com/switzerland-train-tour/
Next time…
Montreux, home of many music genres and the stunning medieval Chateau de Chillon, favourite stopover by Lord Byron on the 19th century Grand Tour.
The future of UK rail – post pandemic.
It seems a world away from March and April 2020 when UK train companies were battling with rapidly falling passenger numbers. The Channel 5 series The Railway 247 highlights the financial pressures Trans Pennine train company were under to maintain the service https://www.my5.tv/the-railway-24-7/season-1/episode-6-b9733a0b-253b-4405-998c-8b51040b5858
At that time the government effectively nationalised the Train Operating companies. On 22nd September 2020 the government then announced Emergency Recovery Measures agreement (ERMA) to continue for up to 18 months. The train companies are now being paid management fees. It is further expected that a number of train companies will relinquish their contracts and revert to government control. This has already happened with East Coast and Northern Rail. This article in The Guardian from the time explains possible future options following the demise of the franchise system https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/21/how-the-end-of-the-rail-franchise-system-will-affect-britains-trains
Negotiations between the Department of Transport and the rail companies are continuing now that the franchise system has been cancelled. In the long term the train companies will probably be paid a fixed fee to run services. The government has already spent £3.5 billion up to September 2020 to cover losses on the rail network since March 2020, sometimes trains are running at less than 5% of capacity.
Have your say…
Is in effect nationalising railways in GB the only solution?
The franchise model has doubled passenger numbers in 25 years – is it really dead in the water?
What incentive do the newly nationalised rail companies have to continue marketing?
