To drive or Travel by Train

Tomorrow I will be heading to Gruyère. I saw that if I take the train it will take two hours but if I take the car it will take one hour. I am currently toying with the idea of suggesting that I pick up some people in Nyon and others in Fourmi, before going to Gruyère.

There was a time when I would easily have done this. At that time I almost always took the car because that was the default habit. Now the default habit is lost and taking the train is as convenient as driving.

The advantage of driving is that I save an hour in time but use petrol and have to be focused for the entire journey. In the train I can be as distracted as I want. I could even nap, but for some reason I haven’t had siestas on trains recently.

As i wrote this I bought the train ticket. It’s 36 CHF for a two way trip. The car would have been cheaper petrol wise but then I need to park, and drive, and worry about the weather after the polar vortex.

If I did not have the demi tarif it would cost 72 CHF to do this, and then the car is cheaper, at least petrol wise. With the demi tarif this trip is cheap. I was expecting it to be more than this. I’m happy that it isn’t. 18 CHF is a good price, per direction.

This trip is unusual because it starts and ends in the same place. That’s why I have already bought the ticket. By starting in the same place I don’t need to use the "easyride option that I usually use for other trips.

If I had offered the car option it would be 34 per person for four people, from Nyon whereas the train from Nyon is 36CHF so it doesn’t make sense to use the car, except to save time.

And Finally

The key point of whether to use the car is not time, but how many changes I need to make. From Nyon to Gruyère you need to change trains just once. That’s easy to do. If I had to change three or four times and wait for buses then I would not consider the train.

This year is good, because I use the train for leisure, not just to commute to Geneva and back for work. By exploring I am seeing how convenient trains can be. Sometimes I use trains for short hops but in this context I use it for the entire day, and the car sleeps more than it is used.