Tour specific travel advice to cut carbon emissions – for your tour starting in Areches
The Eagles now has a target to emit net zero carbon from its activities within two full seasons, by cutting emissions by swapping from air to train, for example; and by offsetting. We estimate current net emissions from tours to be 280 tonnes/year after offsetting. (To keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees by 2100, each person should emit on average no more than 1.5 tonnes per year.) If you would like to help reach the club’s target, there are two main things you can do:
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Offset your travel (by whatever mode) by buying from the Club’s emissions offset scheme at a cost of around £3.50 for an average return flight within Europe and less for other modes.
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Choose lower emission mode(s) of transport for all or part of your trip. (Taking a direct flight from say Edinburgh to Munich then continuing to Innsbruck by train, instead of taking connecting flights, will still cut emissions. Or travel by train in one direction and plane the other.)
Per passenger, the rough CO2 emissions for a return from London to Geneva are as follows
Direct flight, Economy Class 400kg
Large car, 4 passengers 160kg
Small car, 4 passengers 80kg
Coach 50kg
Train (e.g. Eurostar ) 25kg
(Source of data: here)
This document gives a few tips on booking lower carbon travel to the start point of your tour, Areches, from London. The closest station is Albertville from where buses operated by https://www.autocarsblanc.fr/lignes-regulieres run to Areches via Beaufort.
Train. Albertville is around 9 hours by train from London St Pancras, with changes in Paris (from Gare du Nord to Gare du Lyon, using one fast metro line; tickets are sold at the Eurostar buffet car) and Chambery. You may also find viable times via Lille and Lyon Part-Dieu, avoiding crossing Paris. For train times see www.bahn.co.uk – just enter London or your local GB station and your final destination, pretty much anywhere in Europe.
In 2021 Eurostar does not offer through London-Albertville tickets and trains. The closest you can get with a through ticket is Lyon. Alternatively, and usually more cheaply, you can buy a ticket to Paris or Lille on www.eurostar.com, and another onwards from Paris or Lille to Lyon or Albertville at www.oui.sncf.com. To be on the safe side allow 60 minutes in Paris if you don’t have a through ticket. Booked well ahead Eurostar charge around £60 for a single from London to Paris; SNCF charge about the same for a single from Paris to Albertville; or a through ticket from London to Lyon is about £100, and then £27 for a buy-on-the-day ticket to Albertville.
Eurostar and German Rail (DB) tickets go on sale 6 months in advance and SNCF 4 months. More info at https://www.eagleskiclub.org.uk/plan-your-trip/low-carbon-travel/train-travel-tips-and-hints.
Bus. You can travel overnight from London to Paris and then to Chambery in a total of about 18-20 hours and for around £50, booking ahead at www.flixbus.co.uk, then train Chambery-Albertville.
Car. The Michelin route planner www.viamichelin.com suggests a drive time from London to Areches of 12 hours, a distance of 1050 km/650 miles and tolls of €95 one way. It also calculates fuel costs for your car, though not Euroshuttle. A motorway payment tag can be convenient – see www.bipandgo.com – but prices are the same as cash or card.
Carshare. Paid carsharing is available with www.blablacar.com. If driving, register your trip details to get paying passengers – e.g. €70 Calais-Lyon; or search available rides in the app. It is widely used in France and Spain.
Travelling from outside London? Apologies if this info all seems a bit London-centric but pretty much all rail and bus travel from the UK to the continent is via London, though when driving, the Hull-Zeebrugge or Newcastle Amsterdam ferries may be good (though still carbon intensive) alternatives to Euroshuttle. By train, it is possible to return as far north as Edinburgh in one day from some stations in the western Alps (Modane, for example; or from Zurich), though more difficult on the outward due to the time difference. See www.bahn.co.uk