Travel Gamble

[SIRandyraven]

Got to be in Geneva on the 1st of June. No delays ...no excuses ...money depending on it ...

So normal option is to go to Heathrow and take a BA flight or Swiss Air flight direct due to BA strikes.
Yes they must be bleeding money ...if BA exist this time next year in the same form , I will be surprised.

However due to the BA strike and those Icelandic s burning our money and sending us the ash clouds from the bonfires , I had to look at an alternate route ....

So my 4 hour trip door to door has turned into a 13 hour epic ...

Plan is ...
Train from home , leaving at 7am to catch 7.12am train to Waterloo.
Arrives at Waterloo at 08.20
Taxi from Waterloo to St Pancras to catch the 10.25am Eurostar.
Arrive at Paris Nord at 13:47 ....
Metro (fast one ) RER across Paris to Paris Lyon station.
Lunch at a street cafe ...
Train from Paris Lyon at 15:58 (TGV lyra)
Arrive in Lausanne at 19:40
Depart Lausanne at 19:45 for Geneva
Arrive in Geneva at 20:24 ...
10 min walk to Hotel ....

puff puff
And above in reverse for return ....but train is direct from Geneva to Paris ...

Look forward to using the TGV lyra ...they are fast trains and move at 186mph ...and great views as we pass though the Alps ...

Cost of course is a bargain at £410 ...return ...excluding Paris metro ...that's just 1.6 Euro ...so cheap ...

Wish me luck ...lol

[moonraker558]

Why not drive?

[Count-A-Strong]

The very best of luck Sir andy. Have you considered driving? Incidently are you on a trAin in your picture?

[SIRandyraven]

Never considered driving to be honest ...I will google it ...

[dothawkes31]

cos his car don;t do 186mph i guess lol

[ummmm]

Good Luck.....at least it breaks the journey up...lol

[SIRandyraven]

To drive will mean driving 700 miles.
I guess that will mean 11 hours behind the wheel ...
+ Tunnel or Ferry times .....

That's a lot of driving ...
At 40p per mile cost would be £560 + cost of ferry return ...

Nope ..will settle back on train and sip lot's of coffee and watch the French...

[craft1948]

Why not get the 15:04 from Gare de Lyon which gets into Geneva at 18:35.

[dothawkes31]

can't you fly from lyon or somewhere on the continent or is the ash hitting them aswell?

[SIRandyraven]

Yes ...that's a picture of me on the North Yorkshire Steam Railway ...

Oh god .... NO ..I'm not a train buff ...lol
Just coincidence ...my profile picture of me on a train and my post about a epic train journey ...ha ha
However I did go on a steam train trip to Minehead once from Newbury.
Sounded fun at the time ...Sunday dinner on the train and a day out in Minehead.
Some of more serious train spotters and enthusiasts had special eye protectors so they could stick their heads out of windows and look into the wind and smoke from the engine ...lol ...

[moonraker558]

leave a day or two earlier to be sure.

[DEN53]

They do direct flights to Geneva from City Airport in London - well that is the ash is not hovering of course.

[SIRandyraven]

I did consider the 15:04 ...but fancied a small break in journey in Paris to grab something to eat ...I intend to eat in the Le Train Bleu ...well I hope time allowing :-)

http://www.le-train-bleu.com/uk/galerie.htm

[craft1948]

hmm makes the cafe at Kings Cross look a bit sick.....

[ummmm]

That looks really nice....

[SIRandyraven]

I considered it this way ....
Last time Ash stopped play for a few days ....
So don't want to spend several days in Geneva just in case ...
or be stuck in Geneva for days trying to get home ...
So flight is the only option ...
It's all the blame on the Greeks ...they caused the finance rush on the markets ...and thus the trip ...long story lol

Yes ...you can fly from City Airport ....and I can also fly from Bristol ...but none offer 100% certainty of being Ash free , when I need to fly out ....

So it can go two ways ...
1- partial shutdown of airports in UK ....
2- complete shutdown of airports
3 - none shutdown and I look up from train at all the planes flying overhead ....

[Buenchico]

Now do you want the bad news?

It looks like you might have booked your journey segments separately, rather than doing the whole thing on the Eurostar website. I don't know your starting point, so I entered 'Petersfield' (because it's about the same journey time away from Waterloo as you've indicated) and asked the site to plan a journey to Geneva on 1st June. (For the return date I entered 3rd June, assuming a business meeting on the 2nd). That routes you out via the 0855 Eurostar service (leaving Petersfield at 0629) and then onto the DIRECT train from Paris Lyon to Geneva, arriving at 1644. (i.e. a total journey time of 9 HOURS 14 MINUTES. (You can also leave Petersfield at 0746, arriving in Geneva at 1835 =a journey of 9 hours 48 minutes).

The even worse news is that doing everything on the Eurostar website is not only quicker, it's also CHEAPER. (The return fare is £352.00).

OOPS!!!!

[SIRandyraven]

Train is the only option ....

Humm ...just seen the online prices ....
I will have to 50/50 with my expenses on this one maybe lol

Since the £ has crashed and become a basket of a currency , we can now only look in from the window , at many of the more interesting places in the world.

ps ...Watch the currency markets next week ....you will see a run on the pound and Euro ...Watch the price of Gold hit new records ...

Now remind me , what did our great financial expert Mr Brown sell the uk's gold reserves at ?

[SIRandyraven]

Maybe I need to speak to our corporate travel agents ....
Just left for them to book it for me ...
Told them I wanted a couple of hours between trains in Paris to allow time to tracel between Paris Nord and Paris Lyon and eat.

Plan to travel on the 31st of May ...1st/2nd June in Geneva ...return on the 3rd of June ....

So easy to fly ...
Geneva airport is a dream ...
Plane lands at 18;00 and can be in taxi or on train into Geneva , including collecting a case of the baggage collect in less than 20 mins ...my record is 16 minutes ...

Used to always take taxi from Airport to Geneva hotel ...cost £25 ish ..
Then on 10th trip ...found out the train was free ....all trains from airport stop at Geneva city centre and hotel is 10 min walk from station ....Train takes less than 10 mins ...so always use train now for free ....
In airport ...prior to going through Green or Red customs channel ...use train ticket machine for free train ticket ...it allow x free minutes travel on train from airport ...
Now how cool is that :-)

[Buenchico]

Me again!

Since you're letting your corporate travel people do the bookings, I won't bore you with lots more times and prices, but it occurs to me that it might be helpful if you tell them which Eurostar service you'd like to travel on and (probably more importantly) which DIRECT train from Paris to Geneva would best meet your needs (by giving you time for lunch in Paris).

Here are the timetables:

Eurostar:
http://www.eurostar.c...bles/UK_timetable.pdf

TGV Lyria:
http://www.tgv-lyria....ires/paris_geneve.pdf

Chris

[SIRandyraven]

Thanks Chis ...

Will do ...
They should have access to all this.
The idea is to let these people handle all the bookings ...but most of the time you end up doubled checking what they have booked and then ...hey what's the point of using these guys lol
They charge booking fees etc ....