Train vs Plane

[atillathehunn]

The best part of travel is the memories you make!

I plan to travel to Samarkand and Bukhara in my first week, go back to Tashkent and then go to Bishkek and Almaty in my second week, all by train. China is pushing it a bit for this trip, but if all goes well I might try it out in 2028, as I've booked a cruise for next year to finally see the fjords with a decent single occupancy package.

Bukhara is really not to be missed - lovely place. If I may be impertinent - don't miss Khiva.

We did Samarkand - Bukhara (on the Afrosiyob) and then return on the slow train, and then the sleeper (normal, not the luxury) overnight to Khiva, back using the sleeper stock but as a day train to Samarkand. Khiva is a great city to visit, but even more so to take a trip out into Karkalpakstan, a semi-autonomous province within UZ, and they use Kazakh rather than Uzbek or Russian. The place is litterered with ancient castles abandoned in the desert that you can roam around at your leisure and absolutely and entirely alone. There are nomad camps to sleep at as well - a stunning night under the stars with adequate facilities and terrific dumplings.

 

[LAX54]

Wash your mouth out! NOW!!!

A plane is a vehicle ...with wings

 

[fandroid]

I've flown a lot of short-haul in Europe, and find that even the full-fat airlines like BA and Lufthansa are cramped and relatively uncomfortable in Economy. I prefer window seats for the potential view and somewhere to lean my head if I'm tired, but the hassle of shifting two fellow passengers out of the way for a toilet visit is a pain.

It's all the hanging around that gets to me. Delayed flights are very much normal, but you can't afford to delay your arrival at the airport. You must fit their (often fake) original schedule. Queues for security, then overcrowding at the gate area, while wondering how delayed boarding might turn out to be. Delays on the plane once all are boarded, waiting for a slot at the other end. "Holding patterns" somewhere over Essex (strictly a Heathrow thing). It doesn't all end with the landing. I've had 20 minute waits on the plane due to lack of buses to take us to the terminal. Long winded bus transfers, almost always standing, cramped and lurching.

Add in a transfer to a second flight, where a 2 hours gap is always recommended as your first flight is certain to be delayed, and you can repeat all the fun once more. Try Schiphol's gate area dedicated to regional British airports. Gloriously crowded and confusing with added bus travel to heighten the experience.

With trains I always feel as if I have far more personal control, and more freedom to abandon if services go pear-shaped.

 

[styles]

It's more than just time though. I live hours from London, so there's extra time spent getting to St Pancras for Eurostar connections.

But I get:

• More legroom
• Bigger seats
• Can get up and walk about/stretch legs
• Proper sized table
• Cheaper food
• Better views
• Quicker check-in
• Proper luggage allowance
• City to city, rather than airport far away from city to airport far away from city
• Better environmental footprint
• Decent Internet
• Nicer terminals/stations
• Bigger on board toilets

For medium journeys I'm happy to pay for this. Sometimes the luggage allowance pays for itself.

I go to Switzerland once a year for volunteering and it's train every time for me. There's no better way of travelling through the mountains than by train.

 

[markle]

London to Bordeaux for a long weekend, out on Friday 13th March return Monday 16th.

Eurostar prices over £200 for the outward, coming back is £144.

British Airways from Gatwick £166 return (other ‘cheaper’ airlines are available) Yes, you’ve got baggage and seats to consider but at those sort of prices why is anyone going Eurostar/TGV.

Recently peered into this question for a planned family summer holiday to Annecy. Ordinarily we'd fly into Geneva and get the train.

Return plane tickets for our desired dates, with luggage and a reasonable departure times (i.e. not 6am) were £1.2K for the family.

And that's before airport parking (+£100-150).

Train to Annecy via Paris ends up being about £800-900 return, depending on the specific pricing when TGV open up for booking. A SNCF Carte Avantage will also make a significant dent in the price and pay for itself.

Family around the table will be more comfortable and pleasant, with bigger seats, and kids can get up and walk around, and it's no more logistically painful.

I think whilst there anomalies, train and plane pricing is similar, and it becomes a discussion of comfort and personal preference.

 

[The exile]

I book aisle seats so hang back to board last and stay seated at the gate, marvelling at the half hour of extra standing time beyond the gate that ‘priority boarding’ buys for the gullible.

That’s fine if you haven’t got a carry-on bag to fit into the overhead locker (preferably within reach of your seat!). Otherwise, it’s the dubious pleasure of a long stand halfway down an unheated staircase breathing jet engine fumes! That’s why when it comes to airports for me it’s “the smaller the better” (until you try getting to/from them!)

 

[Lewisham2221]

It's more than just time though. I live hours from London, so there's extra time spent getting to St Pancras for Eurostar connections.

But I get:

• More legroom
• Bigger seats
• Can get up and walk about/stretch legs
• Proper sized table
• Cheaper food
• Better views
• Quicker check-in
• Proper luggage allowance
• City to city, rather than airport far away from city to airport far away from city
• Better environmental footprint
• Decent Internet
• Nicer terminals/stations
• Bigger on board toilets

For medium journeys I'm happy to pay for this. Sometimes the luggage allowance pays for itself.

I go to Switzerland once a year for volunteering and it's train every time for me. There's no better way of travelling through the mountains than by train.

I'm not prepared to pay an extra £200 for a couple of hours WiFi usage and a slightly larger toilet. Even Ryanair don't manage to charge triple figures for onboard food. But it's horses for courses, it'll suit some people's situations better than it suits others. For me, personally, the better value for money is in flying or the ferry.

 

[punxsutawny]

It depends on the purpose of your trip. If you're planning a holiday or trip in advance and can book shortly after tickets go on sale, the train is excellent value and often cheaper than flying while allowing you a generous bag allowance and avoiding airport transfers etc. However, I acknowledge that a lot of trips can't be planned this fair in advance, and at that point it gets more expensive.

I would still personally argue that if the cost of the airfare without bags is lower than the plane, it doesn't necessarily make it better value. Baggage fees, airport transfers or parking, and other hidden fees with budget airlines quickly narrow that gap, and the convenience of arriving in the city centre and walking right out with your baggage with no delays is a big benefit for me.

 

[cats_five]

Flying is fun. Train is well….a vehicle on rails.

Well the actual flying is if I've managed to get a window seat lined up with a window, and without the wing / engine impeding my view. And, of course, it's the only practical way to Frankfurt. But the 2-hour checking isn't. Nor is passport control at Frankfurt. Nor is the almost an hour shuffling in a queue slowly through Border Control when I get back. Thank goodness there are toilet airside. Nor is having to wend my way through lots of overpriced shops with heavy whiffs of perfume to get to the gate. Nor are the prices for food & drink at airports.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jan 2026 ==

<snip>
when it comes to airports for me it’s “the smaller the better” (until you try getting to/from them!)

I guess Barra would be right up your street then!

 

[Tetragon213]

It's more than just time though. I live hours from London, so there's extra time spent getting to St Pancras for Eurostar connections.

But I get:

• More legroom
• Bigger seats
• Can get up and walk about/stretch legs
• Proper sized table
• Cheaper food
• Better views
• Quicker check-in
• Proper luggage allowance
• City to city, rather than airport far away from city to airport far away from city
• Better environmental footprint
• Decent Internet
• Nicer terminals/stations
• Bigger on board toilets

For medium journeys I'm happy to pay for this. Sometimes the luggage allowance pays for itself.

I go to Switzerland once a year for volunteering and it's train every time for me. There's no better way of travelling through the mountains than by train.

Once you have suffered the indignity of having your face crammed into a Vomiter vestibule panel for 2 hours, with your feet screaming in pain and the smell of unmentionable psychoactives permeating through the coaches, I suspect you'll change your tune rather quickly over air travel.

I also don't think the sight of dead urban sprawl around Birmingham New Street, nor the lovely view of vandalism and grafitti near Euston constitute "nicer views", and I seriously have to challenge your assertions over "nicer terminals/stations", seeing as my local "direct to London" station is the hellhole that is Birmingham New Street.

I'd much rather take my chances with a flight; than spend what feels like hours crammed like a sardine in an overheated Voyager, navigate the byzantine mess that is New Street, then spend 2 hours breathing in the fumes of green psychoactives into Euston, play Euston Stampede roulette, then arrive at St Pancras at the Eurostar recommended 75 minutes before departure, thus wiping out any advantage in loiter time over aviation.

 

[BazingaTribe]

Bukhara is really not to be missed - lovely place. If I may be impertinent - don't miss Khiva.

We did Samarkand - Bukhara (on the Afrosiyob) and then return on the slow train, and then the sleeper (normal, not the luxury) overnight to Khiva, back using the sleeper stock but as a day train to Samarkand. Khiva is a great city to visit, but even more so to take a trip out into Karkalpakstan, a semi-autonomous province within UZ, and they use Kazakh rather than Uzbek or Russian. The place is litterered with ancient castles abandoned in the desert that you can roam around at your leisure and absolutely and entirely alone. There are nomad camps to sleep at as well - a stunning night under the stars with adequate facilities and terrific dumplings.

I will definitely have to go back for seconds (just like I only scratched the surface of the South Caucasus)! Two weeks exploring the west this time, then another trip to the east and into China.

 

[Mikey C]

The airport experience is of course slow and unpleasant, but these days depending on where you're travelling from Eurostar isn't that much better. Taking an early morning train from Amsterdam, the whole checking in and security experience was really slow and stressful. Completely the opposite of the turn up and board experience which is part of the joy of rail travel.

 

[fandroid]

I avoided mentioning the problems with passport control because they sadly apply whatever travel mode you're using to leave/enter the UK.

The one and only rail option for leaving the UK is Eurostar, and in spite of the capacity problems at each end, and its prices, it is undoubtedly popular, with rivals elbowing each other to get a share of the fares.

 

[Mikey C]

I avoided mentioning the problems with passport control because they sadly apply whatever travel mode you're using to leave/enter the UK.

The one and only rail option for leaving the UK is Eurostar, and in spite of the capacity problems at each end, and its prices, it is undoubtedly popular, with rivals elbowing each other to get a share of the fares.

It's not the passport control which is the worst part, it's the security, with all bags having to be screened.

Imagine how much worse domestic train travel would be if every bag had to go through a scanner,

 

[styles]

It's not the passport control which is the worst part, it's the security, with all bags having to be screened.

Imagine how much worse domestic train travel would be if every bag had to go through a scanner,

There are however advantages to Eurostar in luggage - apart from it being gratis, you can take the likes of pocket knives and unlimited liquids. I've always found the bag security to be pretty quick to be honest.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jan 2026 ==

Once you have suffered the indignity of having your face crammed into a Vomiter vestibule panel for 2 hours, with your feet screaming in pain and the smell of unmentionable psychoactives permeating through the coaches, I suspect you'll change your tune rather quickly over air travel.

I also don't think the sight of dead urban sprawl around Birmingham New Street, nor the lovely view of vandalism and grafitti near Euston constitute "nicer views", and I seriously have to challenge your assertions over "nicer terminals/stations", seeing as my local "direct to London" station is the hellhole that is Birmingham New Street.

I'd much rather take my chances with a flight; than spend what feels like hours crammed like a sardine in an overheated Voyager, navigate the byzantine mess that is New Street, then spend 2 hours breathing in the fumes of green psychoactives into Euston, play Euston Stampede roulette, then arrive at St Pancras at the Eurostar recommended 75 minutes before departure, thus wiping out any advantage in loiter time over aviation.

Yeah I've had my share of RyanAir flights with tanked up passengers as well, even had a diversion which led to a 9 hour delay getting home.

The views on the WCML are better than the views of a cloud.

Birmingham New Street isn't a great station, but it's arguably better than Luton airport.

What did the staff say when you reported the psychoactives?

 

[cats_five]

I avoided mentioning the problems with passport control because they sadly apply whatever travel mode you're using to leave/enter the UK.

I got one-up on the border control chap at Frankfurt. He asked me where I was going, gave him the name of the small village my friend lives in, I think a momentary look of 'where TF is that?' crossed his face and he stamped my passport.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Having, on more than one occasion, been left to sit in the vestibule of a Pendolino because my reserved seat wasn't reserved, there's something to be said for flying where you are guaranteed a seat.

Beyond that, it depends where you're going to and from as to whether the train makes more or less sense than flying.

For trips to the big cities in northern Europe, rail generally only makes sense if you live less than about 60-90 minutes' travel time from St Pancras. Any more than that and you may as well fly. Why would you spend eight hours getting from Newcastle to Amsterdam by train when the flight time is an hour and the total end-to-end time is about three hours?

 

[Krokodil]

Once you have suffered the indignity of having your face crammed into a Vomiter vestibule panel for 2 hours, with your feet screaming in pain and the smell of unmentionable psychoactives permeating through the coaches, I suspect you'll change your tune rather quickly over air travel.

I also don't think the sight of dead urban sprawl around Birmingham New Street, nor the lovely view of vandalism and grafitti near Euston constitute "nicer views", and I seriously have to challenge your assertions over "nicer terminals/stations", seeing as my local "direct to London" station is the hellhole that is Birmingham New Street.

I'd much rather take my chances with a flight; than spend what feels like hours crammed like a sardine in an overheated Voyager, navigate the byzantine mess that is New Street, then spend 2 hours breathing in the fumes of green psychoactives into Euston, play Euston Stampede roulette, then arrive at St Pancras at the Eurostar recommended 75 minutes before departure, thus wiping out any advantage in loiter time over aviation.

To be brutally honest, I solve most of those problems by not living in Birmingham. It doesn't work for everyone, I know.

For trips to the big cities in northern Europe, rail generally only makes sense if you live less than about 60-90 minutes' travel time from St Pancras.

I'm three hours from London, so flying should be more convenient, right? Except that I'm also two and a quarter hours from an airport.

If Avanti have a meltdown then Eurostar will accommodate me on a later train (and conversely if I'm feeling very confident in my arrival time at Euston, I might move my booking to an earlier departure from St Pancras). If the Castlefield Corridor falls apart preventing me getting to Manchester Airport what rights do I have?

For Amsterdam, the train still makes sense, though I accept that Hamburg would be too far for most people with the current infrastructure.

 

[Tetragon213]

Yeah I've had my share of RyanAir flights with tanked up passengers as well, even had a diversion which led to a 9 hour delay getting home.

While I can firmly agree that Ryanair regularly fills up, I've never spent a journey with Ryanair without a seat of some description, unlike with XC where I have spent multiple journeys stood the whole way, and even seen passengers be left behind on the platform at Sheffield once or twice.

The views on the WCML are better than the views of a cloud.

Only really north of Birmingham; the views in the Lune Gorge are positively to die for even on a bad day. However, the view between Birmingham and London consists of a stimulating and tantalising selection of "dead urban sprawl", "graffitied urban sprawl", "decaying urban sprawl", and "nu urban sprawl"

Birmingham New Street isn't a great station, but it's arguably better than Luton airport.

What did the staff say when you reported the psychoactives?

Never got a response from the guard; he shrugged, ignored me, and then walked off. Lines up with my usual experience of XC guards being the least professional group of rail personnel I've ever met.

To be brutally honest, I solve most of those problems by not living in Birmingham. It doesn't work for everyone, I know.

How blessed a life you must lead. I'm stuck here for work purposes for the foreseeable future, unfortunately.

 

[z444z]

I also have a family member who is a wheelchair user and she is way more comfortable on trains than on planes. Eurostar also do an excellent rate on Eurostar Plus/Premier for wheelchair users and their companions.

Late to this discussion and glad to see someone has brought this up. Airlines break wheelchairs all the time and aren’t always even liable for the full amount (if you can get them to pay out at all). Plus wheelchair users have to suffer the indignity of using an uncomfortable and absurdly narrow aisle chair to get and often be manhandled into to their generally wholly unsuitable seat, or for those who are ambulatory, the probably inadvisable exertion of walking through the narrow aisle with no room for any mobility aids at all. The train wins.

Not to mention air travel always makes me feel unwell. Not vertigo or motion sickness, which many people do additionally experience, but I always arrive feeling unimaginably grim due to the thin dry air in the cabin and the constant noise.

 

[BazingaTribe]

The airport experience is of course slow and unpleasant, but these days depending on where you're travelling from Eurostar isn't that much better. Taking an early morning train from Amsterdam, the whole checking in and security experience was really slow and stressful. Completely the opposite of the turn up and board experience which is part of the joy of rail travel.

Very true. Getting on in Brussels recently was like being made into paté. And at least at St Pancras there were places to get coffee beyond security etc; I'd just got in from Germany and had to go straight through the check in and it was chaos.

Mind you, I travelled on Saturday both ways. Everything I've got booked now is for a weekday. I'll see how it differs.

 

[jthjth]

I just did a quick comparison from North Staffordshire to Brussels, Mon-Fri next week.

Drive to Manchester airport. Park. Check in bag. Fast track security. Fly Ryanair to Charleroi with extra legroom. Coach transfer from Charleroi to Brussels. Insured. About £250 return.

Train to Euston. Tube or walk to St. Pancras. Eurostar to Brussels. £400+ before you factor in how I'm getting from home to the station. Pretty much all the "cheaper" E* fares involve a peak train to/from Euston, a night time arrival in Brussels, or require an overnight hotel stay in London. The E* trains that allow off-peak travel to London and a decent arrival time in Brussels (and vice versa for the return) have significantly higher fares that basically wipe out the savings made by being able to travel off-peak within the UK.

Door to door, Eurostar possibly gets the job done and hour or so quicker, but that's not worth the significant extra cost.

Now, I'm being slightly disingenuous, as I can get PRIV and FIP fares, so if I'm travelling alone, I can probably make Eurostar a competitive option. If I'm travelling with someone, I'm not paying (or making them pay) twice the price for no real benefit.

You can get from (almost) anywhere in the GB to Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam for about 309 GBP return with Interrail. That is standard class, using a 4 days in a month global pass and adding the Eurostar reservation fees. The Global pass allows one outward and one return trip within GB. Also acts as an Anytime in GB. Interrail spaces on E* are limited though. And First Class/Standard Premier is only about 25% more.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I'm three hours from London, so flying should be more convenient, right? Except that I'm also two and a quarter hours from an airport.

I did say generally.

I don't know which part of Wales you live in, but funny you should mention Amsterdam: KLM fly direct to Amsterdam from Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, and Manchester.

 

[markle]

You can get from (almost) anywhere in the GB to Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam for about 309 GBP return with Interrail. That is standard class, using a 4 days in a month global pass and adding the Eurostar reservation fees. The Global pass allows one outward and one return trip within GB. Also acts as an Anytime in GB. Interrail spaces on E* are limited though. And First Class/Standard Premier is only about 25% more.

IIRC TGV reservation fees will add €12 each way on top of that, if you're travelling further in France.

 

[alex397]

Very true. Getting on in Brussels recently was like being made into paté. And at least at St Pancras there were places to get coffee beyond security etc; I'd just got in from Germany and had to go straight through the check in and it was chaos.

Yes the Brussels Eurostar terminal is simply grim. But I’ve never had to spend an extended amount of time there. Generally, I’ve gone fairly quickly through passport control and security and then I’ve waited about 15 minutes before boarding.
The crowding at Brussels and some other Eurostar terminals is not that much worse (if at all) then waiting around in the airport. And you have to do it three times at an airport. Wait for gate announcement, hang around at the gate, then they will board you and leave you waiting on a staircase for ages (Once they did this for 45 minutes while dealing with some issue with the plane - sitting on the crowded stairs for so long with no windows is like torture).
So I’ll take Brussels-Midi Eurostar terminal over a large airport any day.

 

[BazingaTribe]

Yes the Brussels Eurostar terminal is simply grim. But I’ve never had to spend an extended amount of time there. Generally, I’ve gone fairly quickly through passport control and security and then I’ve waited about 15 minutes before boarding.
The crowding at Brussels and some other Eurostar terminals is not that much worse (if at all) then waiting around in the airport. And you have to do it three times at an airport. Wait for gate announcement, hang around at the gate, then they will board you and leave you waiting on a staircase for ages (Once they did this for 45 minutes while dealing with some issue with the plane - sitting on the crowded stairs for so long with no windows is like torture).
So I’ll take Brussels-Midi Eurostar terminal over a large airport any day.

Oh yeah, totally. I'm autistic and lame in my left ankle, so the worst part was security and passport control (they usually invite me to the front of a queue when they see the walking stick but there was no point in that this time because I was miles away from any convenient gap they could get me through). Also when I got home my mum spotted that my case had broken a wheel, so it was suddenly apparent why I'd had difficulties with it all week.

 

[Krokodil]

I did say generally.

I don't know which part of Wales you live in, but funny you should mention Amsterdam: KLM fly direct to Amsterdam from Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, and Manchester.

Liverpool or Manchester are my nearest, but as I said it's just over two and a quarter hours away, one with a service that gets cancelled at the drop of a hat, the other via a notoriously congested route (Castlefield Corridor). Would KLM transfer me onto a later flight at no cost if I didn't make it to the airport on time? KLM close check in 40 minutes before the flight, Eurostar 30 minutes (15 for a price). But that Eurostar time includes border control, which is something I'd have to queue up for at Schipol before getting transport into the city whereas I can just step off of the Eurostar and into the middle of Amsterdam. It's less likely to be a weekend city break than it is to be an extended trip so I often travel with a 100L deployment bag for ease of packing (camera gear can be bulky too) which means that baggage reclaim adds more time. So all-in the time advantage of flying is actually pretty small. As others have said, Eurostar is far more comfortable than flying.

 

[Tetragon213]

The airport experience is of course slow and unpleasant, but these days depending on where you're travelling from Eurostar isn't that much better. Taking an early morning train from Amsterdam, the whole checking in and security experience was really slow and stressful. Completely the opposite of the turn up and board experience which is part of the joy of rail travel.

Making matters worse, Eurostar themselves suggest arriving 75 minutes before departure, which wipes out a lot of the whole "turn up and go" benefit. Ironically, EasyJet and Eurostar both close their check in desks at precisely the same time before departure, which is 30 minutes.

Liverpool or Manchester are my nearest, but as I said it's just over two and a quarter hours away, one with a service that gets cancelled at the drop of a hat, the other via a notoriously congested route (Castlefield Corridor). Would KLM transfer me onto a later flight at no cost if I didn't make it to the airport on time? KLM close check in 40 minutes before the flight, Eurostar 30 minutes (15 for a price). But that Eurostar time includes border control, which is something I'd have to queue up for at Schipol before getting transport into the city whereas I can just step off of the Eurostar and into the middle of Amsterdam. So all-in the time advantage of flying is actually pretty small. As others have said, Eurostar is far more comfortable than flying.

I'm not too convinced the prices that Extortionstar charges are worth the rather minor time savings. I've done Eurostar to Brussels once for the experience, and while it was fun for me, I could tell my family were not-at-all interested in the journey, and my dad later pulled me aside offering "constructive criticism" over the much higher prices that we paid out compared to simply taking a flight. Even I was struggling to justify the cost without resorting to reference of the "experience" of it all and the views out of the window, which weren't exactly grand.

In retrospect, I'd much rather have flown, then spent the saved pocket change on a journey through the Lune Gorge or Blackmoor Vale. Heck, looking back I might have been able to just about squeeze in a ticket to Shrewsbury and then onwards to Llanelli via the Heart of Wales.

 

[Krokodil]

I'm not too convinced the prices that Extortionstar charges are worth the rather minor time savings

Looking a month ahead and seeing plenty of trains to Paris at £60.

 

[plugwash]

You can get from (almost) anywhere in the GB to Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam for about 309 GBP return with Interrail. That is standard class, using a 4 days in a month global pass and adding the Eurostar reservation fees. The Global pass allows one outward and one return trip within GB. Also acts as an Anytime in GB. Interrail spaces on E* are limited though. And First Class/Standard Premier is only about 25% more.

I did this a few years back for a trip to marsellie, and was unable to get any resevations on trains from London to paris at acceptable times. Fortunately, I was able to get reservations to lille and then get reservations on the TGVs from there.