We can’t say much right now about what we’ve got in store, but rest assured that it is incredibly exciting, and involves major updates to how the journey-planner works. Previously we stated that we would be releasing updates every few weeks but we realised that it would be better to work on everything behind the scenes and release the new stuff with a bang.

Following a few teething problems we had communicating the functionality of the tool when we first released it, we’ve decided to be good agile web developers and do proper user-testing before releasing the next set of features.  If you want to help us test the tool before it goes fully public then please sign up as a member and we’ll contact you when it’s ready to go.

In the meantime please wish us luck as we continue to buzz around transferring the pollen of ideas to the hive of web development activity (I’ve used a picture of a bee as the thumbnail for this post, so I had to get a lame metaphor in there somewhere. Please forgive me).

The Guardian have chosen to make their content available to anyone building a web application so that they can (in their words) allow Guardian content to be “woven into the fabric of the internet”. This is in stark contrast to the decision by Rupert Murdoch to try and tackle the decline of revenues from newspaper sales by introducing a pay-wall for the Times Online.

Here at Loco2 we are fascinated by these developments, but with a particular interest in travel content (obviously!). The interesting thing about travel and transport content is its geographical relevance. We hope that the way we are using it at Loco2 will help people and places feel more connected, as travellers discover things to do along their journey as well as at the destination they are heading to.

As we release new features and functionality, we aim to continue in the spirit of transparency by explaining how we are building the software that we hope will soon make booking European rail far easier. To stay up-to-date with the features as they are released, make sure you sign up!

Thumbnail image credit Roo Reynolds

It included a chat with a great couple - Geoffrey and Elizabeth Woodward – who have dedicated many years to slow-travel and have been on cargo-ships all over the World. Listening to them regale listeners with their tales of adventure filled me with joy. I highly recommend listening again to the programme and checking out these new slow travel celebrities.

“Do it slow, and you will find yourself” says the captain of a Swedish container ship featured on the show; a sentiment which we wholeheartedly condone. Tales of pirates in Samoa, stowaways in Cape Town, and an enviable “element of unpredictability and excitement” make this a compelling case for cargo ship travel and slow travel in a wider context.

Of course our very own Kate Andrews has been on her own epic adventure across the Atlantic by cargo-ship, and you can watch her video diaries here and here, or read her blog. We’ve also got a more general introduction to cargo-ship travel as well, and over the next few months we’ll be adding more detailed information about how to book such adventures yourself.

Loco2 – the low carbon travel company – today announces the launch of an exciting journey-planning tool at http://loco2travel.com/journeyplanner. With thousands stranded due to the grounding of flights, it’s time to take a look at the alternatives.

The carbon-savings from grounded flights due to the ash cloud is estimated to be well over 200,000 tonnes of CO2, and European rail and ferry websites have reported a massive increase in traffic as customers switch rapidly to overland travel.

Loco2 is the first initiative related to flying’s impact on the environment to focus on the positive of travelling overland rather than the negatives of flying. The new journey planning tool lets visitors to Loco2 discover a whole world of train-based fun, with trips ranging from gentle breaks in France right through to epic adventures around Eastern Europe.

The tool displays typical journey itineraries through an intuitive interface, and lets users browse content specific to each location they’ll be visiting on the way. This example journey to Romania shows how users can visit the wonderful cities of Berlin and Budapest instead of bypassing them by plane.

Loco2 have also written a handy guide to buying InterRail passes, which can often be a cheaper (and easier to book) alternative to normal return tickets when booking European rail.

The launch of phase one of the journey-planning tool is just the start for Loco2. The next stage includes integrating live timetable and price info with the tool, making it much easier to find and book cost-effective alternatives to flights. So next time a huge volcanic eruption disrupts the transport infrastructure of an entire continent, travellers will be able to look on the bright side and make the journey part of the adventure.

About Loco2:

Loco2 was founded by Kate Andrews when she was a student in Brighton in 2006. She then took off on an epic low carbon travel adventure around the world by boat and train, which you can read all about in her blogs.

In the meantime, her brother Jamie has been building up Loco2 in his spare time. Both Jamie and Kate are now based in London, working with other members of the Loco2 team to start solving the challenges of low carbon travel for the large numbers of people seeking an alternative to flying.

NOTES:

Statistic about carbon-savings from the ash cloud taken from http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/planes-or-volcano

To arrange an interview with either Jamie or Kate please call Jamie on +44(0)7976 660619 or email jamie@loco2travel.com

Read Loco2’s blog about the ash cloud and contact us if you’d like to republish it

As this graphic from information is beautiful demonstrates, the carbon saving from all the grounded planes is huge. Obviously the hassle for all the stranded thousands cannot be fun, but it also gives us the perspective to consider what an alternative to our current carbon-hungry travel infrastructure might look like.

For journeys within Europe, the development over the past few years of a sophisticated high-speed rail network means that alternatives to short-haul flights are becoming increasingly convenient (although admittedly they aren’t anywhere near as cheap as they need to be).

But as soon as we want to go beyond Europe, suddenly the alternatives to flying become a challenge at best. As pioneering low carbon traveller and founder of Loco2, Kate, has shown, it is possible to cross the Atlantic on a cargo-ship. But with only a few cabins in each ship, and the carbon-savings difficult to quantify, this doesn’t seem like the long-term alternative that the world really needs.

Earlier this month saw the launch of the world’s first solar-powered boat. Whilst the Türanor (its epic name inspired by the Lord of the Rings) will not be ferrying thousands of people around the world any time soon, it’s a definite moment in the development of low carbon travel. Alongside a new solar-powered plane taking its first flight this month, and numerous concepts for zero-emission airships, there are lots of things to get excited about as we imagine a low emission travel future.

The challenge we now face is turning these visions into a reality. At Loco2 we’re beginning by focusing on making overland train trips in Europe easier to plan and book. This is what we’ll be keeping in mind as we further develop our journey planning tool over the coming months.

Thanks to the ash cloud, lots of people will be travelling by low carbon means when otherwise they’d be confined to a plane. This time round it’s unlikely to be the most enjoyable of experiences as the stress of disruption takes its hold. But as nature takes its course and reminds us how little control we really have over our environment, it’s good to take a moment and think about how different the world could be.

Thumbnail photo credit: PSD

If you’ve signed up to the 10:10 campaign you’re probably looking for an easy and fun way to cut 10% from your carbon footprint.

Well look no further! At Loco2 we’re here to help you do just that.

Your footprint

Calculating your carbon footprint can be a tricky business, and it’s very difficult to get a fully accurate picture. But broadly speaking flights add a hefty sum to your total footprint, and swapping the journeys for the train can save up to 90%.

The average UK footprint is around twelve tonnes of CO2 when you include all the ‘indirect’ emissions from food, shopping and your contribution to national services like the NHS and Government.

Data from the UK Act on CO2 carbon calculator puts average emissions from flights at around two tonnes of CO2 per year (reflecting the fact that lots of people, especially those on lower incomes, fly less than once a year).

A return flight from London to Sydney produces almost six tonnes of CO2. So straight away you can see how much of an effect flights have on your footprint. If you took a long-haul flight last year and you are able to cut it out this year then you are likely to be smashing through the 10% barrier.

But I like holidays!

So do we. Thankfully, going on holiday by train can be more fun than flying because you get to visit places on the way to your destination, see the landscape change before your eyes and avoid hectic airports.

We’ve developed a journey-planning tool featuring more than one hundred journeys in Europe so you can see just what’s possible for a low carbon holiday, and we’re adding new journeys every day.

One of the easiest ways to plan and book a trip is by purchasing an InterRail pass for your journey. This can often be cheaper and less hassle than working out the options for a normal return ticket. We’ve created a handy guide to InterRail passes to help you work out the right options for you.

We’re working hard to make Loco2 more useful and have lots of exciting plans in store, so please sign up for updates. By the end of 2010 it should be easier than ever for everybody to save 10% and beyond!

As lots of you will know, it is currently pretty difficult to successfully plan and book an overland journey, particularly train journeys within Europe. We hope that the journey-planner is a step in the right direction to making that easier. The tool includes location-specific content from Guardian Travel, Qype, and accommodation listings from Hostelbookers.

Whilst the journey-planner doesn’t currently include live timetable or price information, it does clearly outline typical routes for getting to popular destinations from London. You can see the journey on a map and view times of connections for the journeys we have added.

UPDATE 20th April – Based on user feedback we have decided that the ‘create your own journey’ feature is not quite yet ready for public release, so we’re going to keep improving it, and will update again when it’s ready.

We have been working hard developing and testing the tool for some months now. We’re pretty pleased with how far we’ve got, but we’re aware that lots more needs to be done to make it really useful. In software development jargon, we would say that the tool is ‘in beta’ (just like lots of Google web applications were for a long time) and is being developed following ‘release early, release often’ principles. That means that there are more exciting things to come, and that we want your feedback to make the tool better and more useful.

We have our own ideas on what needs to be done to improve the tool, and we’ll be releasing new features on a regular basis (probably every 2-3 weeks). We’re also planning to change the rest of the site substantially, and hope to soon announce some important partnerships. If you are a member of the press who would like to receive a press release about the launch of the journey-planner, or a company who wants to work with us, please get in touch.

Thanks to everyone who has helped the tool get this far, notably Chris Adams, Fred Fix, Jon Leighton and of course the rest of the Loco2 team.

For you web development geeks out there, the journey planner is built in Ruby on Rails on a PostgreSQL database. We plan to open-source code where/when it makes sense, and you can find Loco2 on Github.

Here’s a descritption of the fantastic project in their own words:

Faced with the science of climate change, Dizraeli (known to his mum as Rowan Sawday) has vowed never to fly again. All good, until he is offered a golden opportunity to perform in Egypt. After a brief struggle with the devil on his left shoulder, Rowan decides to stick to his principles, exchange quick convenience and aeroplane food for a continent-sized slice of chaos, and go overland. Accompanied by documentary photographer/filmmaker Billy Macrae, he has two weeks and £500 to get to Cairo. The pair will travel through Central and Eastern Europe, then on to Turkey, Syria, Israel and Palestine. Crossing countless borders and barriers, they will broadcast their journey to the world: as a daily blog, a weekly video diary and finally, a documentary film accompanied by a full-length album.

Read more on the Unplaned website.

What I particularly like about the challenge that the pair have set themselves, is that they are poised to explore some really fascinating cultural issues through the medium of music, spoken word and documentary. One of the main reasons we set up Loco2 was to tackle similar issues: what does it mean that frequent short and long-haul travel to have become so prevalent in Western culture? Surely there is more to travel than (a) escaping your own home life or (b) copying everyone else for fear of missing out? Overland travel opens up a whole new world of cultural exchange, and there doesn’t seem to be a better pair to explore it than Dizraeli and Billy Macrae.

I’ll leave you with one of the poems that Dizraeli performed on the night, this time set to music. For me, the lyrics are spot on in terms of how travel has in lots of ways become a status symbol rather than a truly authentic experience for its own sake… The pair leave in three days, so wish them well, and we’ll no doubt be hearing lots more from them…

Photo credits: Elizabeth Argyll, Ed Yourdon, Dizraeli

Now Google have teamed up with Russian Railways, to offer the ultimate in virtual travelling: a trip on the Trans-Siberian railway!

If you have a spare week or so but can’t leave your computer because you are addicted Facebook, then why not open this in another window, and you can have the best of both worlds.

That’s right, the entire length of the track has been filmed and embedded into a Googlemap so that you can experience the whole journey. Not only can you watch everything you might see out of the window, but you can listen to light-hearted tidbits like the whole of War and Peace by Tolstoy.

If you’re wondering who on earth Russian Railways are, it is relatively self-explanatory, but if you want more info then I’d watch this video interview with the cheerful chap who heads up the company. In his words (and I quote): “Yearly, we are carrying like one billion three hundred million passengers”. Blimey.

I personally would prefer the real thing, especially as at the end of the week I’d be in Asia, rather than still sat in front of my computer. But it’s a cool idea, and here at Loco2 the journey-planning tool we’re releasing soon has some similar features in terms of helping you know what to expect on a long rail-based adventure.

Photo credits: Brostad, Denis Tang, Magical World

Now that Kate is back from her travels the sibling duo have been joined by a fantastic web developer called Eugene and a content editor with an eye for detail, Jodie.

Jamie Andrews

Since graduating from the University of Sheffield with a degree in History in 2004, Jamie initially remained in the city he grew to love, working for two years at a clean technology ‘incubator’, where he helped start-up companies hatch their ideas into reality.

Since early 2007 he has worked in web development, starting at the fantastic Torchbox, where he managed the development and launch of The Carbon Account.

In 2008 he moved to East London and began working for AMEE where he still works for four days a week at their Silicon Roundabout offices.

As you might have guessed, Jamie likes travelling and constantly rues the irony of barely having the time for a holiday, so busy has he been building up Loco2 in his spare time.

Kate Andrews

Kate is Jamie’s cheeky little sister. She hatched the plan for Loco2 in 2006 while in her final year of University, before gallivanting off around the World, leaving all the hard work to him.

She’s crossed an ocean on a container ship, sailed the Pacific on a tiny yacht, crossed Asia by bus and train and done a whole lot else besides. In the past two years she’s visited over 25 countries, and used countless forms of low carbon travel. But in October 2009, after an 800 day circumnavigation she decided it was time to come home and face the music.

Having used up her quota of travel for a few years she’s now living in East London, working for Loco2 and helping other people realise the potential of surface travel.

Eugene Bolshakov

Eugene has worked at an inflatable beach mattress rental shop, a digital camera store, as a sound technician at a student club and various other weird and wonderful places.

But he couldn’t help finally picking the only thing he seems to be good at (and which is apparently the most boring one) — web programming.

He has given up the chance to permanently reside in the US because he’d have to fly to visit his parents in Russia. He finds it hard to stay in one place for a long time and when he’s not on the move (or packing things) he likes watching short Indie films, making vegetarian sushi rolls and searching for a reason to get on the move again.

Jodie Harris

Jodie is Loco2’s resident content editor. She has a background in environmental communication and sustainability, and a fantastic eye for detail.

In 2008 she returned from travelling around New Zealand in camper van, and decided to give a helping hand to fellow surface travellers.

Her most recent project was setting up planetearth, the UK’S leading portal for environmental science news. Based in Bristol, she now works for Loco2 part time, bringing her many years experience and editorial skills to the team.

To go with the general shake-up of the site’s design, there are a lots of exciting new features to feast your eyes upon.

Firstly, we now have the holiday ideas section to go along with the expanded festivals and adventures sections. It’s also now possible to fully search the site using the box in the top-right of every page.

But the thing that has really been taking blood, sweat and tears (and a fair amount of money) to create, is the new journey planner. For the moment this is only available to a limited number of users as we need help to test it and check everything works. So please sign up, and if you’re quick then your account should be confirmed within a few days.

To coincide with the launch of the new site, we’re really keen to start responding more proactively to all feedback, hence the massive button on the left-hand side of every page. The Loco2 team (who you’ll be hearing more about soon) are here to help. We’ll be updating everything far more regularly than before, plus making ongoing improvements to all aspects of the site.

So stay tuned, and remember kids, don’t go crazy, go loco!

When a journey is created, we send details of the mode of transport and the distance travelled to AMEE, who offer a web-based service for calculating the footprint of different activities. AMEE is the engine behind reputable carbon calculators such as the UK Government’s Act on CO₂ tool and it holds lots of data for calcuating emissions of different activities. All of the data is checked by a team of qualified scientists, with the sources clearly identifiable.

At the moment, the calculations used for Loco2 are pretty basic, with one emissions factor per passenger per kilometer for each mode of transport (as outlined below). The benefit of using AMEE is that we can increase the accuracy over time so that as well as having emisson factors for different modes of transport, we can also take into account the geographical region that a journey takes place in, and the typical occupancy of trains, coaches and ferries on different routes.

The emissions factors we currently use are the ones published by the UK Department for the Environment in their Company Reporting Guidelines (PDF) (see Annex 6 of the report). At present we have decided to use the ‘National’ train type for calculating international journeys. This is because the ‘International’ factor is deceptively low due to the fact that it refers to Eurostar journeys, which predominantly run on electric trains using power generated in France. Most electricity in other European countries and beyond have a higher carbon intensity, because of a greater reliance and coal and gas as opposed to nuclear power stations in France.

We are currently working to make our carbon calculations more sophisticated by further collaboration with AMEE. Watch this space…

Currently used emissions factors for each mode of transport

Train: 0.0577 kg CO2 per passenger km

Bus/coach: 0.0300 kg CO2 per passenger km

Ferry: 0.1152 kg CO2 per passenger km

Photos: ansik (thumbnail)

But now it’s a different story. The end of the Cold War was as different for each country of Eastern Europe as it was liberating for its young people. And now as the more obvious downsides of Western capitalism are increasingly evident, it makes for a fascinating exploration not only of the countries themselves, but of the global mindshare that we are all part of.

As with all train journeys from the UK to the continent, you start in either Paris or Brussels. Going via Paris means you can catch the new uber-quick TGV East to Berlin and be there in eight hours with a quick change at Manheim. And what could be a more apt way to introduce yourself to Eastern Europe than the home of the Wall that divided East and West? 2009 was the twentieth anniversary of it coming down, and the celebrations were accompanied by some amazing street performances that typify the vibrant and intriging culture of the city.

From there it’s a short journey to Prague, a beautiful city where the authorities have been strict in not letting its amazing skyline be ruined by high-rise blocks. If you’re up for getting a first taste of Eastern European night-life, Cross Club is not to be missed with its deft beats and robotic decor…

Then you can work your way further South-East via Braitslava in Slovakia (don’t be put off by the film Hostel, not everyone gets brutally murdered there) and then on to Budapest, where the Muslim influences of the Ottoman-Turk empire begin to make themsevles known in the domes of the city that border the immense river Danube. Another city rich in history, there is plenty to soak up during the day, with the early evening best reserved for soaking yourself in one of the many delightful hot spring baths that are dotted around.

Bordering Hungary to the East is Romania, and some spectacular scenery along the way. Translyvania may not have any real blood-sucking vampires, but that is clearly a good thing. Depending on the time of year, some excellent skiiing can be had in the Carpathian mountains, or you can head straight for the wonderful capital, Buchurest, and then onto the coastal town of Constanta on the Black Sea.

The only question that remains is which of the other mesmerising places will you visit on the way back! Stay tuned for some more ideas…

Photos:  Fanch the System, urbanartcore.eu, Vironeveah, Dunodung

The good news is that there is a whole world of sun, sea, diverse culture and incredible landscapes right on our doorstep, much of it more accessible by train than parts of Wales. So delve into our favourite holidays in this most illustrious of continents…

We’ve split our Holiday Ideas into those in the British Isles, and those a bit further afield in Europe…

Having said that, it would be pretty sweet to move at an incredibly chilled pace all the time, and here at Loco2 we are all about extolling the benefits of that kind of approach to life. It is exactly this subject that is being tackled at the forthcoming ‘Slow down London’ event, taking place in a week’s time on 29th April at the Southbank Centre.

The event features the legendary Ed Gillespie of slow travel fame in conversation with a Financial Times journalist who writes the ’slow lane’ column (which I must admit I’ve never read but I’m sure it’s great). Tickets cost £7.50 and can be bought from directly from Slow Down London. I should be going along so if you are too and would like to meet up to talk about Loco2 or anything else slow travel-related, then feel free get in touch.

The event is part of a wider initiative that is encouraging Londoners to generally slow down. What a marvellous idea.

]]> http://loco2travel.com/2009/04/slow-down-london/feed/ 0 http://loco2travel.com/2009/01/doing-the-green-thing/ http://loco2travel.com/2009/01/doing-the-green-thing/#comments Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:30:40 +0000 Jamie http://www.loco2travel.com/?p=145 Here at Loco2 we try and focus exclusively on how incredibly fun low carbon travel is, rather than on the negative effects of all those pesky planes. However, in an exception to the rule (the day after the Government made itself even more unpopular by deciding that Heathrow would have another runway), I thought I would share this excellent video from our friends over at Do the Green Thing.

If you haven’t already checked out their site I would recommend doing so. It includes lots of excellent ideas on how to live sustainably, presented through the medium of short, amusing videos.

And for those of you (like me) getting rather depressed about the fact that it looks like voting Tory at the next election might be a good idea, I raise a glass to you, and I’m sure that during 2009 we can help each other deal with the blues (the blues. Get it? Chortle chortle I am a comedy genius).