'I lost my mind taking the train to Spain - there are three problems'

Daily Mirror

11-07-2025

To TGV or not to TGV. That is the question, at least when considering whether to take the environmentally friendlier option to Spain.
It is (almost always) much greener to catch a train than hop on a plane. The stats are clear. At its very worst, the overall climate impact of flying can be over 80 times worse than taking a train, if the non-CO₂ effects of air travel (such as NOx and water vapour) are included.
Planes emit, on average, 4.84 times more greenhouse gas emissions than trains, according to data from the European Environment Agency. But that is, of course, not the only part of the equation.
Riding the rails from London to Madrid—as I did at the beginning of July, when the fiercely hot tendrils of the heatwave were still wrapped around France and Spain—proved possible in just one day. But only just.
A 6am Eurostar out of St Pancras, followed by a small hop across Paris and then a javelin-like race through the tinderbox-dry French and Spanish countryside, gets you to Madrid before midnight.
Flying, however, takes about five hours door to door, if you live within an hour of a major airport. So, about a third of the time of the rail alternative. Despite the train taking so much longer, it would be a tough decision to make if the prices weren't similarly out of whack.
It is a tragedy to admit that my one-way ticket from the British to the Spanish capital cost around £400. On the same day, booked a couple of months in advance, flying costs a tenth of that price with Ryanair or easyJet.
Flying might cost a lot less financial, but the environment is paying the difference. A journey from London to Madrid would emit 43kg (95lb) of CO₂ per passenger by train, but 118kg by plane (or 265kg if non-CO₂ emissions are included), according to EcoPassenger.
I embarked on this journey hoping to report back that slow travel to Spain is worth the extra time and cash cost. "Sure, you may arrive a little later, but think how fattened and enriched you'll be by all those hours of croissant eating, Le Monde reading and view regarding."
At the end of the first leg, I could offer no such conclusion. 36°C is too hot for a day-long train ride. A day is too long. £400 is too much. Not destroying the planet is cool—but so is not having a hernia while trying to make your hotspot work for an hour in the middle of the workday, somewhere around Béziers.
There are a few too many problems with train travel for it to be the true utopian version of clean, sophisticated, continent-straddling travel that I so want it to be.
For one, internet on the train is patchy, often too slow, and usually overloaded. The reasons for this are many, as I've previously written about. Happily, Labour made a big commitment to address this in the UK last month.
The bigger problem is the one pushing people from trains to planes: the price.
Jon Worth, a rail campaigner and train consultant, is a huge advocate of taking the train. He spoke to the Mirror from a carriage on the Slovakian-Hungarian border and described the route from the UK to Spain as "eye-wateringly expensive."
"Eurostar is a fortune, and Paris - Barcelona too, because Eurostar and SNCF, respectively, are keeping supply (the number of trains) low to keep the ticket prices high. There are only two Paris to Barcelona services a day, year-round, and a third one in summer," he explained.
According to Jon, rail companies need to add more services to increase supply and competition, and governments should encourage and allow them to do so.
"The crux is basically this: do I expect passengers to take a train for nine hours instead of flying? No. Is ticket cost a problem? Yes, absolutely! BUT rail firms could do a hell of a lot better with their existing infrastructure - especially France to its neighbouring countries - to run more trains on routes where rail is already time competitive," he continued.
"You need to up the supply so as to drive down ticket costs. You need more trains. And then we start to get somewhere."
Jon suggested that the time it takes to get to Spain on the rails means few currently consider it an option. However, that might not be the case for those signed up to Climate Perks—a scheme that gives employees extra annual leave if they take the train rather than a plane on holiday. The organisation behind it can help you convince your company to sign up if you're interested.
When the time pressure is off and the work laptop has been put away, train journeys can be pure bliss. Once the heatwave had eased off a little and my hot-spotting woes were a mere bad memory, the joy I had sipping black coffee while whizzing through the desert-like countryside on a Renfe train to Madrid beat any experience I've ever had on a plane.
If you do have the time and laid-back attitude to properly enjoy the train, then RailEurope is one of the best ways to arrange and book it.
"Taking the train from the UK to Spain is no longer a niche choice — it's a smart and increasingly popular way to travel. At Rail Europe, we bring together over 250 rail operators on one platform, including Eurostar, SNCF and Renfe, so travellers can book international journeys easily and in one place," the company's CEO Björn Bender told the Mirror.
"The most common route is London to Paris by Eurostar, then a direct TGV or AVE to Barcelona or Madrid. From there, connections to Seville, Valencia or the coast are simple. We show live schedules, handle multiple currencies, and offer mobile tickets — so what seems complex becomes seamless."
Björn recommended getting an Interrail Pass to keep the costs down. A four-day pass is available for £183 on RailEurope's website, although you will have to pay a reservation fee and book ahead in plenty of time to get onto the Eurostar.
"For flexible or multi-stop trips, the Interrail Pass is a great option for European residents. It gives you freedom to explore Spain and beyond by train, at your own pace," the rail boss added.
"Trains offer more legroom, fewer queues and city-centre arrivals — but the real difference is how the journey feels. You see the landscapes change, avoid airport stress, and travel in a way that's more relaxed, more connected.
"Environmentally, the impact speaks for itself: trains can emit up to 20 times less CO₂ than planes. Swapping short-haul flights or car rentals for rail is one of the easiest ways to cut your footprint — without giving up comfort or convenience. That's what we focus on at Rail Europe: making sustainable travel both practical and enjoyable.
"More and more people want to move like locals, not tourists. Trains let you do that — reaching small towns, cultural hubs and places you'd never fly to, all while following the everyday rhythm of Europe. And in terms of time? That's the irony: people think trains are slower — but rail gives you time back. Time to read, to relax, to think. No long security lines, no airport transfers, no stress. Just a smoother, more human way to travel."