Tour-specific travel advice to cut carbon emissions – for your tour in Bourg Sant Pierre
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. At the moment, net emissions from club tours (after offsetting) are about 280 tonnes/year. (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:
- 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.) And/or;
- 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.
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/end point of your tour, Bourg Sant Pierre, from London.
Train. Bourg Sant Pierre is 10-11 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 then Lausanne and onwards on Swiss public transport. For train times see www.bahn.co.uk – just enter origin London, or your local GB station, and your final destination, pretty much anywhere in Europe.
Eurostar does not offer through tickets for this trip. You can buy a ticket to Paris on www.eurostar.com, and another onwards from Paris to Lausanne at the French railways page www.oui.sncf.com . To be on the safe side allow 60 minutes in Paris. Booked well ahead Eurostar charge around £60 for a single from London to Paris and SNCF charge as little as €49 from Paris to Lausanne. Booked ahead at www.sbb.ch, a single from Lausanne to Bourg costs CHF20.
Eurostar and German Rail (DB) tickets go on sale 6 months in advance and SNCF 4 months. More train travel info at https://www.eagleskiclub.org.uk/plan-your-trip/low-carbon-travel/train-travel-tips-and-hints.
Bus. London to Lausanne takes 18 hours with two changes and costs from £50. You can look at times and prices at www.flixbus.co.uk
Car. The Michelin route planner www.viamichelin.com suggests a drive time from London to Bourg of 12 hours, a distance of 1000 km/625 miles and tolls of €105 one way. It also calculates fuel costs for your car, though not Euroshuttle.
Carshare. Blablacar is a carsharing app, heavily used in continental Europe. You pay for a lift – www.blablacar.com. If driving, register to offer lifts and make money - €70 Lyon-Calais, for example.
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 Amsterdam-Newcastle or Hull-Zeebrugge ferry may alternatives to Euroshuttle (although ferries emit much carbon per km). By train, it is possible to return as far north as Edinburgh in one day from the western Alps (Moutiers or Zurich, for example), though more difficult on the outward due to the time difference.