Steve Firth wrote:
> On 14 Nov 2006 07:47:40 -0800, NM wrote:
>
>> Share the numbers please,00
>
> From memory the problems and the costs were as follows:
>
> Difficult to book a ticket for the entire journey.
That is a problem, sadly.
>Instead you need to book
> in three legs. London - Paris, Paris - Bologna, Bologna - Pescara (for us,
> the same line goes on to Bari and Brindisi IIRC.)
>
> So you need to book each leg separately and you're fucked if you miss a
> connection, the next train will often be next day.
Probably not as infrequent as that, on that route. If you have a through
ticket you can just get the next train. You aren't obliged to use
through trains, so it is always worth checking if there is another
faster option if you are willing to change (especially in places like
France, Spain and Italy). Bologna - Pescara has plenty of trains, so not
too much to worry about there if the sleeper is late.
> London Paris return, for whatever you can get it for, but we were quoted
> £150 return on Eurostar because we wanted to go for a month.
It is worth playing around with the Eurostar website, as the previous or
next train might be much cheaper, and a ticket agent might not always
mention this.
> Paris to
> Bologna was £400 for a sleeper berth,
That must be for sole use or something? Picking random dates next month,
the SNCF website offers "Compartment with 1 bed and washbasin. Light
meal served in the morning in the compartment. You will travel in a
compartment reserved exclusively for you." at EUR245-265 each way, with
other (much) cheaper options available.
I went to Italy and back last month and paid about 60 quid for the
Eurostar outbound, and EUR40ish for a couchette from Paris to Munich,
next day (not the most obvious route, admittedly!).
Coming back on a Saturday it was about GBP30-40 for an advance ticket on
a Turin - Paris daytime TGV, then a GBP29.50 half of a Eurostar ticket
to London. We got from southern Italy to Turin by a roundabout route,
but Turin - London was less than 70 quid.
> arriving at about 0600 in Bologna.
> then it was £80 return to Pescara from Bologna.
That sounds steep. A quick glance at the Trenitlia website shows a
Eurostar (Italian version, not our Eurostar) first class ticket at less
than EUR40, so it ought to be < EUR80 return at worst. Internal train
travel in Italy is generally very cheap, especially if you don't need
lots of flexibility. There are handy multi-lingual ticket machines at
Bologna station, so you could just buy a ticket for the next train
whenever you get there.
Perhaps the agent was quoting for fully flexible tickets or something,
which is why the cost was so high?
Obviously not everyone likes sleeper trains, just as not everyone likes
flying, or driving long distances, but UK -> Italy by train can be done
at a realistic cost, depending on the exact circumstances of the trip.
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK
