[Anonymous]

[babsinlondon]

Hello,

First let me introduce myself, I am a master’s student of European Master in Tourism Management program (EMTM) and as part of my thesis I am researching the use of high-speed trains by business travellers. Consequently, if you have any experience travelling with Eurostar for business/work related trips please spare some of your free time to complete my survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/theBTM

It is available until next week, therefore don’t miss out as I am very interested in your opinions and also would be very thankful to you. If you have any questions regarding me or the survey, either check my profile, as I have also included my linkedin, or contact me via my personal email provided in the Introduction section of the survey.

Thank you very much,

Barbara

[LuganoPirate]

Completed Babs. Hope its of use.

Would have been more useful perhaps if you’d included other trains than Eurostar.such as Thalys, the Dutch hi speed train, ICE etc. I use the train a lot in Europe for journeys up to 4 hours as I find it quicker and more convenient than air.

[babsinlondon]

Dear LuganoPirate,

Thank you for completing my survey and also for your suggestion, I will definitely mention it in “need for further research” section of my thesis. The reason why I have based my survey only on Eurostar is because I had to narrow down my research to a manageable level as its only myself working on this research. Also I don’t have any experience of using other high-speed trains so it would be hard for me to write about the above mentioned train operators. If I would have the time and support of the companies or any help regarding the research, I would for sure focus my research on all the HS trains in Europe, as it would be indeed an interesting study to do. Perhaps next time when I decide to do my Phd 🙂

[Moadweeb]

A side note to the conversation above, I just checked the EuroStar web-site earlier today for a train from Amsterdam-London and on either 10/11 July there wasn’t a single train available !! Is this because it is sold out, or it doesn’t run on all days ??

Also, the other services that I checked, cost of each ticket was much more than a flight from Schipol to LCY. Is this normal ? I wonder why then people would take a train for such journeys ?? Maybe, Amsterdam > London are not popular or economical routes by rail ??

..M

[NTarrant]

Also completed Babs, good luck with your studies. Good survey too

[SimonS1]

Ditto have done it. Good luck.

[SimonS1]

Moadweeb – check http://www.raileurope.co.uk and there are plenty of trains from Amsterdam to London, most starting around £130.

Eurostar doesn’t run to Amsterdam (you have to change in Brussels) do maybe that is something to do with it.

[LuganoPirate]

Sorry slight diversion here Babs, but I hope the info will help your thesis anyway.

Not only do you change in Brussels (or Lille) but part of the journey between Brussels and Rotterdam is still on the old lines. Further, some trains makes a stop in Antwerp which is a Terminus, a la Charing X or St. Pancras, so it has to pull in, and then the driver needs to walk the length of the train to pull out again.

The funding is missing for this part of the track and in current economic times is unlikely to be found.

The current high speed journey is only about an hour quicker than the old TEE (sadly no longer existing) and the fare is about 3 times the fare of the regular service which currently takes about 75 minutes more.

It’s a great shame these new high speed services such as Eurostar and Thalys price themselves in line with air travel rather than as a cheaper means of transport for the general public.

[babsinlondon]

That’s alight LuganoPireta, I am always happy to find out new things regarding my case study. If there is anything you would like to pinpoint that has to do with business travel and Eurostar perhaps a comparison with other high-speed trains, or what could Eurostar do better to keep the loyalty of business travellers, or to shift more business traveller from air to rail (taking into account its connecting routes as well) I will be more than happy to read it.

[NTarrant]

LP – I agree with you about some of these trains having fares simular or more with air travel. Although I travelled Amsterdam to Brussels in December in first class for €65.00 which I didn’t think was bad an comparable to an advance first class on some of the main lines out of London to the north. But I don’t know what the walk on fare would have been.

The last time I looked at Eurostar in first class the fare was more than BA in Club Europe.

[SimonS1]

LP, once again your comments are inaccurate I’m afraid.

Antwerp station has 4 through platforms on the bottom level and is not just a terminus.

Also trains to Amsterdam/Rotterdam have not had to reverse at Antwerp since the new tunnels under the city were opened 5 years ago and the bit about drivers walking the length of the train is nonsense.

[NTarrant]

I would concurr with Simon LP, we had facing seats all the way from AMS to BRU.

[LuganoPirate]

I cannot believe 5 years has passed since doing this route last, and then we definitely pulled into then out of Antwerp, but it was not the hi speed train then, so apologies for that, but it is a fact, and this is my main point, that after spending billions, the time saving is not so great over the old TEE’s.

To quote from the hispeed.nl site:

“Between Amsterdam, Schiphol and Rotterdam the high-speed train reaches a maximum speed of 160 kilometres an hour. After Rotterdam the Thalys travels at full speed (300 km/hour). Between Antwerp and Brussels top speed will again be 160 kilomtres an hour after which it will again be able to run at full speed on its way to Paris.”

The plan is to upgrade the line for the “missing link” at which price I don’t know but several billion euros for sure for a saving in time of just five minutes.

The Fyra train is losing money as many Dutch don’t want to pay the extra for this service and, along with the Belgians are very much against using more taxpayers money to upgrade the line to accept speeds of 300 kph especially as the time savings are not so great.

One final thing Babs, have a look at what the Swiss are doing with the Alp Transit project. It’s quite amazing as is the way it’s being financed.

[MartynSinclair]

Am going to Frankfurt next week and there seems to be an exhibition causing a shortage of suitable flight times.

I thought about going by train.

I used bahn.de to check.

Quickest London to Frankfurt was 5.43 (with one change) but for the return there was nothing under 7 hours and 2 or 3 changes. Anything under 6 hours by train (city centre to city centre) would be acceptable for me.

The shocker though was the ticket price, Euros 450 (second class).

Instead of flying direct to FFM, I may choose Stuttgart / Koln and take an ICE for under Euros 50 and it takes less than 2 hours.

Does anyone have any current experience on Eurostar / ICE from London into Germany?

[Author]

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