Excuse me while I let off some steam. And not that of a steam engine, which was the intention.
I have just fallen victim to the outrageous injustice of the low cost airline. It happened only yesterday when I went to book train tickets to Portugal to visit the new factories we are working with to manufacture Worn Again products - www.wornagain.co.uk.
I spent 3 hours on the phone and internet trying to co-ordinate ticket prices and times. Thanks to the Man in Seat 61, it was much easier to map out the journey, but speaking with Rail Europe and the Spanish Railways proved timely and intermittent, as Spanish Railways computers were down. Eventually I got all legs of the journey timed and priced.
To go from London to Porto would cost me a whopping £424. Begrudgingly, I was prepared to pay this despite the fact that Worn Again is a fledgling brand not quite operating on the scale of Nike or Adidas with non existent expense accounts. However, I take great pleasure out of sticking to my values and walking the talk (and taking the train - much better scenery and more civilised than airport lounges).
After reserving my tickets, I thought it'd be interesting to compare with a low cost airline - just for fun - to see what the difference was. In less than 5 minutes, I found a return flight from Stanstead to Porto, including taxes, for £134 - that's a quarter of the cost of the low carbon option!
Inner turmoil ensued. I struggled, kicked and screamed. Colleagues around me said that the choice was obvious. So to my despair, I booked the flight.
If this had been a trip for pleasure, I would have chosen somewhere else, easier and cheaper to access by land. But because it was for work and our miniscule budget couldn't handle the decadence of the low carbon land journey, I succumbed to the call of the low cost airline instead. I feel dirty and shameful, but by talking about it, I hope I can pull through.
This struggle is common to many people I meet in these circles. It's not easy being eco.
Ironically, just a few weeks ago, we (Anti-Apathy - www.antiapathy.org) launched our latest nag on TheNag.net, asking the UK government to help make trains cheaper than planes. TheNag.net is a tool we've designed to help people do one thing a month to live more sustainably (one lazy-assed mouse click at a time). The Holiday Nag consists of a letter to Alistair Darling and Ruth Kelly asking some serious questions around transport policy.
While it didn't save me from this recent injustice, there's still hope, if enough people continue nagging. If you do nothing else today, do sign up to www.thenag.net and do the Holiday Nag. Who knows, we may all meet on a holiday sleeper train in five years time...
All best,
Cyndi