The Hawksworth's May Diary - Rail vs Car
| Published: 21st June 2007 23:05 |
Now this was fun! And a little more interesting than Insulation and Fridges!
14th May - A Live Broadcast at the Great Central Railway Station at Loughborough!
All loaded up, kids packed up and ready for School by 05:30 a.m. for a trip to Loughborough! The BBC was looking at having the broadcast at Derby Station but it's so busy and loud, my suggestion to use the steam railway station at Loughborough which is a fantastic backdrop, was ideal.
The morning was nice and relaxed, running up the platform for Bacon butties and sat in an old railway carriage drinking tea and OJ with the odd interview between VT hits and yes the broadcast to America via the ABC network!
So the Subject - Rail Versus Car?
Train travel is perhaps never the first choice for families; it can be greener, simpler and quicker but it's oh so easy to just jump into that car! We were offered the opportunity to compare these modes of travel with a trip to London.
Oh and yes the Producer, Sally, was acting cameraman for the weekend.The Family Railcard had organised tickets for a one way trip to London for us all. A challenge indeed to get ourselves and 5 children organised with overnight bags and on the platform at Long Eaton Station for a 10:30 train on a Saturday morning...
The trip down was really relaxing I have to say; even the kids enjoyed the experience. Sally took some footage, which felt a little uneasy as it's a public train and was let's say different! Carol kept herself busy on the laptop doing some coursework (I think she was keeping her head down trying to get out of it myself!?).
Good things noticed about the train:
- Power sockets for your laptops or mobile chargers - so great for business travellers, and free coffee n' tea from the "M's Bar" with midland mainline!
- Also it was noted that the kids behave a little better as they have to think of others and don't act as if "in home mode" if you know what I mean!
So the Hawksworth Family, last off the train at St Pancras, as Sally needed to capture this and then interviews on the platform! The Kids felt like true celebs! But again us adults felt a bit like ducks out of water with all the attention.
St Pancras looks very nice now they have almost finished the building work - it has really come into the 21st century with lots of steel, concrete and plenty of information boards.
I thought we would be hitting a tube to get across London to Tower Bridge where we are stopping, but Sally had organised Taxi's which was a godsend as we had bags and kids hanging off us. The Taxi's were a nice touch - 2 of: 1 a Merc which all the older kids made a beeline for!
And whoever didn't get that, got the Prius, a hybrid carbon friendly car.. (you'll be finding out more about these on my June Blog when we cover car technology).
Once at the hotel, we had to make several entries to add footage for the VT but once done we were left to enjoy a lovely warm few days sightseeing around the capital.
And handed a BBC camcorder to capture some moments!
This was great, the weather was super, a late night walk up the embankment to see the London Eye Big Wheel and the Globe Theatre, followed by a late night feast with pop, chocolate and fruit with us all crashed out across the bed!
Sunday - the big bus tour and walk around Horse Guards and Trafalgar.
Sunday evening came around much too quickly. Sally, the BBC producer, turned up around 5 pm with a large MPV for myself to drive us all back to Castle Donington. (Around 121 miles by the way).
Again, several exits of the hotel for footage! And interviews en route up the M1. (We managed to get lost by the way within 5 mins from the hotel! Ended up dumping the route map and using the sun to hit the north circular!)
The M1 lived up to its expectations, the roadworks at J10 were awful and we had quite a few stops and starts in between contra flows!
We arrived home around 10pm very tired and ready for a break from the camera, but poor Sally had to drive all the way back that night, who said working in the media is all glam! Long days and hard work from what we have seen!
Conclusions
Now when it came to Carbon outputs there was very little difference due to the size of the family! If there were 2 or 3 travelling in a car then the differences would be seen in favour of the train.
I and Carol found it very relaxing and quicker on the train, cost wise - the car was slightly cheaper, but then again you can get some really good deals on the train if booking early and going online.
For 3 adults and 4 children it was around £68 on the train on the Saturday. I had to go on business to London off peak the other day - £30 return 1st Class - very good value!
http://www.midlandmainline.com/ (Current promotion of £7 one way to London).
The car, although, does give you that flexibility of travelling when you want and not restricted to timetables... but the kids are more themselves with the odd fallout in the back!
If you are going to somewhere like London or a large city base, then we would recommend the train, the car gives you flexibility but can be more stressful!
Useful Information
Follow this link to the BBC webpage and view a short video of the May BBC Breakfast broadcast
Other useful links:
http://www.family-railcard.co.uk/
If using a car ..... to be continued within June's live hit at Donington Park on the 22nd and the topics of Hybrids etc!
I have set up a temporary email address for those wishing to seek any further advice or submit useful ideas - please feel to contact us HFM@ntlworld.com
Paul & "The Hawksworth's"
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