Choosing trains over planes in "The Content Economy"

So on The Content Economy, Oscar Berg blogs today about "What others predict for 2008," mentioning Bill Ives's post about my "carbon neutral teams" post. I like the example Oscar gives of choosing the train over flying from Malmo to Stockholm, Sweden, and asked him if I could post here, to which he said, "Hi Jessica, please do. I'd be happy to serve as an example of what you're thinking ;)." And, Oscar, I hope you can publish the checklist for green teams you come up with -- so I can publish it here too (as might Bill) and we can really get things rolling quickly on this idea. And soon every team on earth will have to fill out a "green team checklist" as part of its travel request...or something like that. Thanks, Oscar:

As a comment to that [referring to Bill's post, I actually (encouraged by my wife) decided to go by train instead of flying from Malmö to Stockholm next week (600 kilometers). Not only am I saving the environment by not going by air, but I also save money for my company (or actually, the customer) since it will be cheaper than flying - despite the fact that I have to pay for one extra hotel night. The only thing I won't be saving is time. But that depends on how I look at it. On the train, I will be able to work for almost four hours and access the Internet via the wireless network on the train. Maybe I will take some time to sketch on a checklist for situations when I need to get together face-to-face and when other alternatives such as web conferencing might be just as suitable or at least possible. In addition to that, I also need a checklist for deciding what means of transportation I should be using in situations when a face-to-face meeting is absolutely necessary – should I go by train, air, car or bike? Then I will publish these as post on my team’s internal blog so they can read it via RSS – wherever they happen to be. Well, as long as they are inside the corporate firewalls.

Comments

[Doug Cornelius]

Yesterday, I just chose to take the Acela instead of a plane to NYC.

It is longer, but much less of a hassle. You can get up, walk around, go to the cafe car.

There are power plugs on the train. I jumped on board at South Station and got the computer fired up and started working in minutes.

In the end, I spent more time in transit, but was more productive than if I flew.

[jessica lipnack]

Agree completely, Doug. I take Acela whenever I can from Back Bay (closer to Newton). I never fly to NY unless for a connection. Also took LimoLiner once but chose the time poorly - Friday before July 4. Took six hours but had wireless all the way - and blogged. Amtrak needs to conquer moving wireless.