For attending the WEF in Davos climate activist Greta Thunberg consequently took the train. A 30-hour journey, as it was reported, highlighting the discomfort of such a trip, stressing her determination to do whatever it takes.
Actually this is not what it normally takes. A good connection with only 4 changes takes some 26,5 hours (if the trains are in time), like this one:
08:25 – 13:32 Stockholm-Copenhagen 5:07 h for 630 km (123 km/h)
15:35 – 20:16 Copenhagen-Hamburg 4:41 h for 340 km (73 km/h)
20:02 – 07:20 Hamburg-Basel 10:18 h for 770 km (75 km/h)
07:33 – 09:41 Basel-Landquart 2:08 h for 190 km (89 km/h)
09:47 – 10:53 Landquart-Davos 1:05 h for 45 km (41 km/h)
I added the average speed of each leg to highlight why you actually have to spend more than a whole day for 1.975 km distance.
Just imagine: We have a real trans-European high-speed railway network running with 220 km/h average speed in its backbones, 180 km/h with stops and changes. You could do the trip in a bit more than 11 hours: Catch the early morning train at 06:00 in Stockholm, change in Copenhagen, Basel and Landquart and have your dinner speech in Davos on the same day.
Unfortunately that’s not reality. 123 km/h on the Swedish leg are in fact a good effective average when you have stops, Deutsche Bahns new Berlin-Munich connection is just slightly faster. Without stops you save roughly 15% time, so the effective maximum speed on average high-speed tracks is 144 km/h. Far from “double the speed of the car, half the speed of the plane”. Disappointed? With 123-144 km/h the train would still outperform the car.
The Two Obstacles
So the actual trouble with this “good” connection is not the Swiss or Swedish leg. It’s the speed on the way between Copenhagen and Basel, for two different reasons:
The slow speed at Copenhagen-Hamburg is owed to an infrastructure gap. The line is yet not electrified and needs to roll on and roll off a ferry. It’s the missing link between the Swedish and the German high speed network, why I strongly advocate not to give up on the Fehmarnbelt crossing by tunnel (built by boring, of course). As there are no big cities on the way possibly as a non-stop connection with 144 km/h (double the speed of today). Berlin-Copenhagen could be 4,5 h trip just like Berlin-Munich – a timespan when even business people consider to skip the plane.
The slow speed at Hamburg-Basel on the other hand is due the poor interest in night train services. A daytime I.C.E. would do the trip in 6,5 h (an average of 118 km/h), unfortunately night trains use rolling stock that is not ready for high speed. With high-speed capable rolling stock and with a non-stop connection 138 km/h would be possible (even without improving the infrastructure on the upper Rhine valley line).
So, what it takes to make the idea of a train trip from Stockholm to Davos less shocking is closing infrastructure gaps in the European high-speed network and long-distance high-speed night trains. Imagine a night train connection from Copenhagen-Basel. It would be an attractive connection, collecting traffic to the Alps from most of Scandinavia. Maybe with one train part that starts in Oslo and another one that starts in Stockholm.
This could be Gretas trip schedule:
18:55 – (23:02) Stockholm-(Copenhagen) 5:07 h for 630 km (regular stops, 123 km/h)
(23:13) – 07:20 (Copenhagen)-Basel 8:07 h for 1110 km (non-stop, 138 km/h)
07:33 – 09:41 Basel-Landquart 2:08 for 190 km (89 km/h)
09:47 – 10:53 Landquart-Davos 1:05 for 45 km (41 km/h)
A night spend in a sleeping car – not shocking enough to be worth mentioning, right?
Change is possible.