Straight track from Zurich to Sofia

Sonia, tell us about your decision to travel by train instead of plane to the 61st plenary session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

For me, it is important to travel by train when I can. It makes a huge difference in terms of the carbon footprint of your travel. If you don't have to fly, you can avoid a relatively large amount of CO₂ emissions when travelling by train within Europe, for example. CO₂ emissions are the main driver of human-made climate change and that is also my main research topic.

Rahel, how did you organise the trip? Were there logistical or other challenges?

At first, I thought, ‘My goodness!’ when Sonia told me about her idea, because you don't take the train to Sofia every day, of course. As a first step, I got information from the national travel companies in Switzerland and Austria and everything would have been easy to book as far as Budapest, but Bulgaria and Romania are not yet bookable as standard train journeys. After further research, I came across a travel agent specialising in individual travel, through whom I was then able to book the itinerary. It was good to have a contact person who thought about many travel details at the same time: such as seat reservations and the possibility of booking a couchette for the night train. All in all, this coordination between me, my travel partner, Sonia and another colleague from the IPCC, with whom Sonia travelled part of the way, required about 80 coordination e-mails.

Sonia, can you describe the journey itself? Did you feel safe and have any interesting experiences along the way, for example in connection with the sustainability aspects of the journey?

It was an interesting and long journey – almost 48 hours. I already have experience of long journeys, for example, more than 20 years ago I travelled by train from Moscow to Mongolia – that took 5 days. I find travelling by train quite pleasant. One reason for this is that you always make new acquaintances and experiences and perceive the journey differently than if you were to fly. When flying, there is a kind of ‘abruption’ between places. Travelling by train, on the other hand, you gradually move from place to place and are more aware of how the environment changes, you feel the spatial transition. Up to Budapest, the journey was also very simple and there was food everywhere, but even after that, it was still quite comfortable on the night train from Budapest to Bucharest, where you could lock the compartment door and sleep. Until then, a colleague from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had accompanied me, and I travelled the route from Bucharest to Sofia alone. I always felt safe and also realised that I was not the only one. There were fellow travellers from Portugal who took the train to Istanbul, and an Englishman wanted to travel by train to Samarkand. Such encounters are pleasant and memorable. From a logistical point of view, too, everything went quite well – from picking up tickets at counters abroad to the punctuality of the train.

Sonia, do you think that the effort involved in planning and making this journey was justified?

Of course, preparing for a trip like this and the journey itself takes more time than a flight. But I think you have to weigh up the pros and cons: if you emit a lot of CO₂, it has a lot of negative consequences, and if you avoid it, it's so effective that it's a main motivation for me to travel this way. On top of that, I can work well on the train and in this case I travelled a long way with my colleague from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which also resulted in synergies for our work. Another fun fact is that I was on time for the meeting and some people who had travelled to Sofia by plane were not – they were delayed due to flight disruptions.

Rahel, how did you experience the journey? How much did it keep you on your toes?

I was very nervous at times, for example because I hadn't received the tickets for the trip by Friday lunchtime and Sonia was supposed to leave on Monday. When the tickets arrived after lunch, I was relieved and at the same time worried again: would it really work, also with picking up the other tickets for the continuation of the trip? Would the connections still be there if we were delayed? It was also my responsibility to make sure that Sonia arrived on time for this important meeting. However, we had planned a small time buffer.

Sonia, you mentioned lower CO₂ emissions as one aspect that motivates you to travel in this sustainable way. Are there any other aspects that have not yet been mentioned?

One aspect, in my view, is that people need to try out these trips and be role models. It's about setting an example and demonstrating feasibility, even if the Zurich to Sofia route still has a bit of a pioneering character. However, the more people plan longer trips by train, the more demand, supply and familiarity for such trips will increase. That's why I reported on the trip on my social media profiles. In Europe, there are many train journeys that allow for a comfortable trip, where you might spend a maximum of one day on the train, but where you can also work and eat quite well. In the end, the time lost compared to a flight is not that great for such trips.

Finally, what institutional support could you imagine to make such sustainable trips an option more often in your daily work?

Rahel: Of course, it would be great to have a point of contact within the organisation, a department that you can ask and that has experience with such trips and could share tips and tricks – a kind of competent organisational partner, because I myself don't often need these kinds of travel planning skills in my day-to-day work.

Sonia: I think it would be great to have the kind of institutional support that Rahel describes. Ultimately, sustainable travel should be easier to integrate into everyday work and easier to book. Providing planning skills within the institution would be a wonderful thing.