I used to hate to travel. But I am starting to like to travel more and more. I like going to new places. I like my life Zurich, but I also love Berlin and all the great people that live there. Of course I also want to see my family in Florida. Meet with all of you guys at conferences around the world. And last but not least, play Ultimate Frisbee all around the globe. That being said, I was also taught to not trash the planet. Zak recently reminded us that we should therefore try and take a step back from all this traveling and figure out how we can live within this ever more connected world in a more responsible manner. However, I also do not want to feed into the frenzy that traveling is the only thing people should think of when it comes to cutting down their CO2 emissions. Of course the most direct and reliable way to reduce CO2 emissions is to constrain ourselves. If we are unwilling to do that, we should at least optimize and that is what this blog post is about.

In all my local travel I count on public transportation and of course my trusty foldable bike. Using my "flatrate" for all trains and public transportation in Switzerland is so liberating. I can go anywhere without having to think about the cost. The system in Switzerland gets you where you are going fast too! And once I get there I can always hop on my foldable bike which rides for free as standard luggage. Sweet! Again, all those trains have CO2 emissions too, but they sure beat me traveling Switzerland in a car. Starting to work for a climate neutral company like Liip was of course one step I already took beginning of this year.

So far so good. Now the biggest issue I see in my last years travel were the commutes between Zurich and Berlin. So far I have done this by plane. I ended up going back and forth at least once every 2 months. And I hate flying. You end up loosing 2 hours (plus flight time) with traveling to the airport, which are never in the center for obvious reasons, waiting at the airports, taking off, landing. On these especially short flights, one could try and get maybe a total of 2 times 30 minutes of work done (waiting for boarding and on the plane). But I find both situations to be very uninspiring for more than casual reading of a magazine. I do not really feel like whipping out my laptop. Also, the booking of a flight has to be done 6-8 weeks in at advance to get a cheap flight. Not very flexible if I need to get back to Zurich quickly for a meeting setup at short notice. And on top of this I am responsible for encouraging expansion of air travel.

Now one option, if I still want to commute to Berlin, is to switch to the train. A night train takes 11-12 hours and sometimes I would even have to switch trains. Not very ideal, even though I am able to sleep on the train. I must admit I am also a bit paranoid about sleeping on a train with my laptop on board. So the other option I began exploring is taking the train during the day. There is a direct train every couple of hours that takes about 8 hours. Due to my flatrate for the Swiss trains, I would only have to pay for the part through Germany (which is of course the longer part of the trip). The German's have been made to suffer through ever more complex fare systems for their tran travels in the recent years and it seems this will not improve in the future. Currently they have this super deal where you can travel to any destination within Germany for just 29 Euros, if you manage to find one of the few spots in their idiotic web site that is. So while this might be a cool option if I am 100% sure I can book a trip 1-2 months in advance, its not really something I can count on. They also have tickets at about twice that cost, which are also limited, which are more likely to get. The more attractive option is to get a Bahncard 50, which runs 220 Euro per year. With that I only have to pay 60 Euros per trip with no advanced booking required, aside from the optional 2 Euro seat reservation. Thats about 10-20 Euros cheaper than a flight booked 6-8 weeks in advance. So even with 6 commutes by plane, I would still end up paying more than taking the plane, but with much more flexibility.

So maybe I can make my train trips worth more or cost less in a different way. Like I said, the 3 hours occupied by the entire flight thing are more or less lost: They do not "work" for work or for relaxation. Now I do enjoy traveling by train. I like the scenery going by, people walking past my and if I do not want to hear the chatter I put on headphones. All I need to do is make sure to get a nice table seat and I can work on the train. Most trains in Germany do have power plugs and I have a spare battery as well. The only missing piece is being able to look something up on the Internet or ask someone a question in a chat. For this I will likely get a data package. My cellphone provider offers a 200 MB monthly package at 10 Euros. Alternatively I could do 0,09 Euros per minute at no monthly charge. I will probably start out with that and see how many MB I need to transfer if I am conservative and pick up that data package if necessary. Unfortunately there is no daily flat rates available with my current provider and switching to another provider that does always comes with the baggage of monthly fees for the voice part.

So the conclusion is that by using the train, I will have higher fixed costs (220 Euros for the BC50 and maybe 10 Euros per month for the data plan versus the 40 Euro a year for the Air Berlin that would allow me to be able to take my bike on my berlin commutes). I could also skip the BC50 all together, since my Swiss flatrate also includes 25% off for all European trains, leaving the price for one direction at 90 Euros. The traveling should be cheaper, both for long term planning with the 29 Euro deal and for short term much much cheaper due to the BC50 (a short term flight is around 300 Euros, making it only feasible to buy with Miles, which however have become impossible to earn at a reasonable rate with cheap plane tickets). Travel time will be longer, but the time wasted is much smaller. CO2 emissions should also be much lower. So I guess the bottom line for me is that I will switch to the train option for my future travels to Berlin.