Glasgow (Dagbladet): Last week, EHAT founder and climate activist Kunhild Stortalen boarded a train to Glasgow. It will be an unforgettable trip for her.
– I left Oslo on Wednesday morning and arrived at 01pm on Saturday night, completely exhausted. I had to stop the taxi to vomit on the way to the lecture. It’s a dream, she tells Docbladet.
Train journey from hell
Worn out to Glasgow
A flight from Oslo to Glasgow would take more than six hours to travel from home and to the climate summit. The journey to Stortale is 78 hours.
– The trip also cost five times as much, and took twelve times longer. In addition, I got Porger Amas in Cicero to calculate climate emissions for me, maybe I saved nothing, Stortaln says at full speed and continues:
– He said it was a small savings before I could enter the two nights I could be there. That’s it, I came to Glasgow completely tired. If I had known what I was going for, I would not have done it. Because of that COP has been advertising all week. This is detrimental to health, ideally, he says.
On Friday, the news flooded Stortell.
– I have received several hundred messages on both Instagram and LinkedIn, yet I have not seen all of them. But people often agree and regret that climate-smart travel can be so costly, difficult and complicated, says Stortalen, who is now seeking system change.
It should be easy
The train journey to Stortale took 80 hours. In addition, she had to go on a total of eight different trains and five different companies, so it took almost four hours to order – so she ordered the platforms.
– I also wanted to show that going by train is not easy, says the 42-year-old.
Transport Minister John-Iver Nicard (AB) says he will work to ensure that more passengers can make climate-friendly transport choices.
– This applies to both domestic transport and overseas travel. There are many measures to make the train more attractive – for example new infrastructure, more departures and new trains. “We will work with our neighbors to facilitate rail travel across national borders,” he told Docbladet.
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At the same time, he believes that “everyone must recognize that the journey between Oslo and Glasgow is geographical, which means it will always be long.”
– The government has great ambitions in this area, but it is a journey where trains can compete with the airline in terms of price and travel time, Nicard continues.
SV’s MP Lars Haltbrekken himself has taken an incredible number of trains in Europe, but acknowledged that there are many challenges. Like ordering tickets.
– Booking tickets is incredibly challenging and time consuming. There I totally agree with Conhilt Stortaln. It should be easy, says Haldbreaken and continues:
– Rail links from Norway to Europe are very poor. In the 1990s, you could take night trains to Copenhagen to travel further to Europe. He says the offer is lost, needs to be revived, and prices need to be reduced so that people can travel according to the weather.
Many trains
Arilt Hermstad at MDG believes that many things need to be done to make the train more attractive.
– Renewable energy, especially wind and sunlight, will have to go even faster, thus eliminating the emission of trains and other land-based transport. At the same time, Hermstad says we need to get air travel soon for non-emission alternatives – and we need to put in faster, cheaper and more trains that run directly between Oslo and European cities.
MDG has long been fighting for night-time trains between Oslo-Copenhagen and Hamburg, which he points out reduces the need for shelter when traveling by train to the continent.
– Shock trip
It was a difficult journey for Stortell. On the way to Rotterdam, she had to change train carriages with a very heavy bag, she says. Also on the Eurostar train to London, there was a plan to work, but the network did not work. Also, the train to London was 45 minutes late due to work.
– Going by train is almost impossible. He says you have to have a lot of money, you have to be a Greta Dunberg idealist and you have to have a lot of time.
What was supposed to be a weather trailer became a “shock trip”.
– I came, completely exhausted. This is not enough. We need to create a European collaboration where you can book a trip from start to finish with a single plate, he says.
Stordaln notes that in Norway the railways happened very sparingly.
– Much could not have happened on the railways since the invention of the train 150 years ago. It was so crisis. Shocking, says Stortalan.
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Unreasonable comments
Stortalen has also received numerous accusations from people who think he is “everything from hypocrites to whining”.
– I see Kjetil Rolness clinks in his usual way. But if one wants to change the existence, there will always be the good part of the opposition and the haters. This is part of the job, and I take it calmly and with a big smile, says Stortaln before she finishes with a question.
– It was interesting to have so much criticism about this. Would there have been more if I had flown?
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