Give up flying?

[661-Pete]

Train travel is exceedingly safe for passengers, not much to bleat about

Try buying a train ticket to New York.

I've often wondered about the feasibility of the Bering Strait crossing - and what use it would be. Not much, I reckon. At present it's got no further than the conceptual stage - although according to Wiki the Chinese are interested.

So - going from Eurasia/Africa to the Americas by train? Not going to happen in my lifetime - nor in the lifetime of anyone on this forum, I reckon. One problem is that on the Russian side, the nearest railroad connection is "over 3200 Km" away. And not much better on the Alaskan side. That's a lot of railway-building!

And even if the railways do get built, and served by superfast trains (like those which span large parts of China)? Even so, how long would the journey from, say, London to NYC, take, "the long way around"?

[mercalia]

I see the jet pack guy made it across the channel, in 20 minutes. What away toget around, far better than an escooter

[kwackers]

I see the jet pack guy made it across the channel, in 20 minutes. What away toget around, far better than an escooter

And all thanks to computers, be impossible to keep that stable without one.

I reckon he's a nutter though.
If it goes wrong then he's not high enough for a parachute to be any use but too high to survive.
The worst of all worlds.

Bet it's a buzz though.

[Cyril Haearn]

There is a lot to be said for timetabled ferries across the Atlantic, in five days as transport, not luxury cruise, I should bring all my food with me to save using the restaurants on board
Might be necessary to have a bit of entertainment, cinemas, lectures, a library

[Carlton green]

There is a lot to be said for timetabled ferries across the Atlantic, in five days as transport, not luxury cruise, I should bring all my food with me to save using the restaurants on board
Might be necessary to have a bit of entertainment, cinemas, lectures, a library

I wonder what the environmental impact would be versus air travel? I suspect that passage wouldn’t be cheap either so no saving to be be made over air travel. Much as I like the idea it won’t work for most people (it’s far too time consuming) and we only used to travel that way because that’s all we had. Short of wind and nuclear powered ships I cannot see a way to travel overseas once the oil runs out.

[Cyril Haearn]

Energy was free back then, just hoist the sails, how did millions emigrate to the New World?
Timetable might be a bit irregular, mind

[merseymouth]

Hi all, Well the migrant passage across the Atlantic underwent massive improvements with about four companies slugging it out, from about 14 days to under 5! Only the Titanic episode put the brakes on.
Not all of it can be blamed on the Iceberg & lack of lifeboats, so many factors coming at the same time was a risk too far! If only she hadn't sailed with a coal bunker on fire? IGICB MM

[661-Pete]

I wonder what the environmental impact would be versus air travel?

Not too good, according to this article:

According to our calculations, a cruiseliner such as Queen Mary 2 emits 0.43kg of CO2 per passenger mile, compared with 0.257kg for a long-haul flight (even allowing for the further damage of emissions being produced in the upper atmosphere)

Admittedly this article is rather old and Cunard have made some improvements since then (e.g. repainting the ship: oddly enough that does help!). Nevertheless they have a lot of catching up to do!

I suspect that passage wouldn’t be cheap either so no saving to be be made over air travel.

You're right there - although not as pricey as some might expect: this is the cheapest offer I've googled up so far: £450 (if you're prepared to sail on 19 November).

We shan't be going on it....

[kwackers]

Not all of it can be blamed on the Iceberg

Oh I don't know.
If that iceberg hadn't stepped out into the path of the ship there wouldn't have been a problem.
Of course better brakes (and steering!) would have helped too.

[merseymouth]

Hi Kwackers, Now the Titanic incident could genuinely be put down to "Pilot Error"? When the order was given for veering off, the officer & the helmsman where on different pages, with different era reactions.
Memory fails me right now but whatever the order was the helmsman & the officer had old school hard down left for starboard & hard down right for port, rather than like we do with a cars steering wheel. (Bit like the tiller on a narrow boat).
So the ship hit the berg rather than veering of. Pilot Error. MM

[661-Pete]

Hi Kwackers, Now the Titanic incident could genuinely be put down to "Pilot Error"? When the order was given for veering off, the officer & the helmsman where on different pages, with different era reactions.
Memory fails me right now but whatever the order was the helmsman & the officer had old school hard down left for starboard & hard down right for port, rather than like we do with a cars steering wheel. (Bit like the tiller on a narrow boat).
So the ship hit the berg rather than veering of. Pilot Error. MM

No, you've got it wrong there. I can't speak from first-hand knowledge - but as I understand it the officer and the helmsman were in perfect understanding. The officer gave the order "hard a'starboard!" meaning, in those days, steer the ship to Port, i.e. to the left - and the helmsman carried out this order precisely. As you say, this terminology was a holdover from days when ships were steered with a tiller.

But there is some evidence, as you said earlier, that the ship did in fact have a fire in one of its coal bunkers throughout the voyage - and that this had weakened the hull considerably.

Anyway, why are we discussing the Titanic? What happened over 100 years ago isn't really relevant to today's shipping. Anyway, you can always watch one of the many movies...

[Cyril Haearn]

A passenger ship across the ocean would be nothing like a cruise liner
It would be more like a very large floating youth hostel

Seems to me it could be a good business opportunity, I would not mind visiting trumpland + Canadia once when I am retired, spend a couple months over there, also jetlag would be less trouble. I do like sleeping, could relax a lot on the boat and hop off in NY ready to go

[Cyril Haearn]

A passenger ship across the ocean would be nothing like a cruise liner
It would be more like a very large floating youth hostel

Seems to me it could be a good business opportunity, I would not mind visiting trumpland + Canadia once when I am retired, spend a couple months over there, also jetlag would be less trouble. I do like sleeping, could relax a lot on the boat and hop off in NY ready to go

As Pete is now part of the green organisation, I hope he signs the no-fly pledge soon

[661-Pete]

As Pete is now part of the green organisation, I hope he signs the no-fly pledge soon

That's a tough one! Better, really, for me to declare that I'll use the car less. In fact we are fortunate in being able to do all the household shopping by bike. Others may be unable to do that.

When I went to the first meeting after signing up for the GP (Mrs P had already been a member for a year or two), I shamefacedly admitted that we already had a holiday booked: our South America tour (which as it turned out involved twelve separate flights ). We were reassured that no-one is perfect, and politicians are the least 'perfect' of all (of course we're not really 'politicians').

Now we've got over that, yes I am seriously thinking about never flying again - pledge or no pledge. I never really had the 'travel bug' and I'm now more than ever disinclined to do any more long journeys.

The one stumbling block is that I'd like to get to the States one more time, to visit our inlaws there and see a bit more of that vast country - before we all get too old. At the moment a certain orange-faced yellow-haired individual stands in the way of that....

[Ben@Forest]

When I went to the first meeting after signing up for the GP (Mrs P had already been a member for a year or two), I shamefacedly admitted that we already had a holiday booked: our South America tour (which as it turned out involved twelve separate flights ). We were reassured that no-one is perfect, and politicians are the least 'perfect' of all (of course we're not really 'politicians').

Now we've got over that, yes I am seriously thinking about never flying again - pledge or no pledge. I never really had the 'travel bug' and I'm now more than ever disinclined to do any more long journeys.

The issue here is of course the 'I'm old and I've done it so won't do it again' which favours the old over the young. Despite the 'Thunberg Effect' there seems to be no general cessation of flying by the young; the main reason for young adults not flying is lack of funds not an environmental conscience. This has even affected Extinction Rebellion.

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