WHERE ARE WE NOW ALMOST 4 MONTHS INTO THE SO-CALLED “ENERGY CRISIS” ?

Since the start of the conflict in the Gulf in early March, the strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf has been blocked to virtually all shipping. This has stopped around 20% of the world’s oil supply from being exported from the Gulf. As we all know, this has caused a sharp rise cost of petrol, diesel and kerosene. Even if there is now a provisional resolution of the conflict, the cost of fuel is unlikely to fall to “pre-war” levels anytime soon.

What this all means is that the economics have begun to work in favour of rail travel which is less affected by sudden increases in fuel costs. The majority of the European main lines are electrified using electricity generated increasingly from nuclear and renewable sources and less from gas, coal and oil. There is already evidence from across Europe and the UK of more people switching to rail due to increasing fuel costs at the pumps and higher air fares.

As the airlines are the main competitor with Eurostar, they are now under far more pressure to increase their fares than Eurostar are. In theory this could be good news, but there is a bit of a problem here. Eurostar have a monopoly on rail services between the UK and Europe. Their current service is the maximum that they can provide with the number of trains they can put into service each day. As more and more people use Eurostar, their “demand-led” fares will probably keep increasing until all their trains are full.

While we are pleased that Eurostar has ordered new trains and Virgin have also announced plans to run competing services, this will not be for another 3-4 years. In the meantime, UK residents may remain “cut-off” from affordable rail travel to and from European destinations.

To avoid the “sky-high” Eurostar fares, it may sometimes be cheaper to buy the cheapest Interrail passes, as they also give you free travel to & from “the border” at London St Pancras. The cheapest pass is the 4-day Flexi Pass which gives you unlimited travel across 33 different European Countries. Depending on your age these passes cost between £247 and £309 including the approximately £60 Eurostar reservation fees for a return journey to Paris, Brussels, Lille, Rotterdam & Amsterdam.

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