Getting to Corsica by public transport

Going on holiday by public transport

We thought we try to see how far you could comfortably get by public transport to go on holiday. Almost everybody from the UK goes to Corsica by air but we thought it ought to be possible to do it in reasonable comfort by ferry and train.

Here is the approximate schedule on the way out.

• Taxi - Sussex to Ashford rail station. 2.30pm.
• Ashford Eurostar to Lille, 5pm.
• Arrive Lille, 7pm. (I hour later)
• Leave on night sleeper for Nice 9pm.
• Arrive Nice 10am the following day.
• Leave Nice for Bastia by Corsica Ferry, 2pm.
• Arrive Bastia, 7pm
• Taxi to St Florent, arrive 8pm.
• Total journey time, adjusting for time change, 29 hours.

I guess that the full journey time for a air trip would have been between 7 and 10 hours, and more if there had been a delay. The route back was slightly longer.

What were the plus points?

• It was fun.
• The ferry is nice and spacious
• We saw a lot more than we would on a air trip. We had some time in Nice and Lille, including a good breakfast on the way back with another English family we'd met.
• The view of Nice and the Cote D'Azur from the boat was wonderful, as was the first sight of the large windfarm on the Corsica coast.
• We never had a moment's sense of being herded through the travel process. There was plenty of time at every stage.

The less satisfactory things were

• The sleeper train is acceptable but primitive. For example, there was no food or drink on board and the loos were best not talked about.
• One doesn't sleep well in these circumstances.
• Waiting around in Nice railway station with our luggage on the way back was hot and tiring.
• Booking the trip was a nightmare. Each stage had to be booked at a different time meaning that we were always concerned that a leg we needed to book in the future wouldn't be available.

Of course, there was also the carbon dioxide benefit. Air travel for the five of us would have cost about 5 tonnes, using a forcing multiplier of 3. This would have been about 30% of our total annual emissions. I haven't done a detailed budget for the train and ferry, but I doubt it would have been more than 1 tonne or so.

What about the cost? We hired a villa from a company that would also have sold us the air travel if we had wanted it. The air fares would have been about £1,550. The train and ferry travel, plus taxis at either end, cost around £1,500. To this should be added unavoidable meal and other costs. These were quite high - but how does one weigh the £50 we spend eating pizza and ice cream by the old port in Nice? Being honest, we probably spent a little more on our version of the trip than we would have if we had gone by air. But it is more pleasant, less environmentally damaging and gives a far better introduction to the holiday.