UK Green Group: Travelling to Frankfurt Book Fair
In 2022, seven Sage staff attending the Frankfurt Book Fair decided to ditch flying and travel to Europe by train in a bid to reduce their carbon emissions. Here is a summary of their travel by train and the positives and negatives of avoiding the airport.
Books Sales Team
Adam Birchall and I met at St Pancras only to discover that our Eurostar to Brussels was delayed by 45 minutes. This then meant that we would miss our connection to Frankfurt—not great if we were rushing to a meeting. The train was very busy when it finally left St. Pancras, and we also soon discovered the wi-fi wasn’t great either, but it was a good chance to catch up on work wi-fi free and to chat. Plus, it was very comfortable. Although we missed our connection it wasn’t all bad—as we got to enjoy sunny Brussels. It turned out we weren’t the only publishers traveling to Frankfurt by train, or the only publishers who had missed their connection, meaning the next train was busy and very full of publishers and agents—a sort of Publishing Express. The return leg was also busy, but I was able to catch up on work and the Eurostar ran on time getting into London exactly two hours later.
Final Thoughts
It was more relaxing and sociable than flying but not without its frustrations in terms of wi-fi and missed connections. But it was great to be able to walk from the Messe to the train station and avoid long check-in times at the airport and had fewer extra costs like train/taxi to and from airports. And most of all it felt great to choose a low carbon option!
Zoe Seaton, UK channel & FE business development manager and Adam Birchall, associate director of channel sales.
Contract and Rights
The Contracts and Rights team were part of the cohort that headed to the Frankfurt Book Fair by Eurostar, and this is their report on comfort and experience:
The train left on time, and we all got to sit together on a table in lovely comfy seats. The benefit of being able to get up and walk around and grab a drink from the restaurant car was a nice bonus. We got to Brussels with plenty of time for our connecting train to Frankfurt, so stocked up on food at Brussels station. We arrived at Frankfurt station on time and were able to walk to our hotel, arriving just after 4pm.
A total of eight hours from St. Pancras to hotel.
Final thoughts
Claire had to leave her house at 05:50, but notes she would have had to leave much earlier for a morning flight! They were delayed on the way back, but overall, they all agreed it was a great way to travel, and they will travel by Eurostar again as the comfort, ability to move around, chat, and the amazing views meant they arrived stress free.
Claire Harper (she/her), head of global rights and licensing, Lu Xu (she/her) licensing executive, Marta Knight (she/her), rights and business development manager, Valérie Bernard (she/her), account manager, foreign rights.