Why this British man travelled 2,000 km by train in 1 day

Story Transcript

As the lockdowns and travel restrictions that came with the coronavirus pandemic are being lifted around the world, there's one man in the U.K. with a unique case of wanderlust.

Jo Kibble, a policy advisor with the local government in the London borough Ealing, took the day off Thursday for a 24-hour challenge to see how far he could travel in that time, via train. 

Kibble live-tweeted his adventure across the European rail network all the way to Bova Marina, a coastal town in southern Italy.

He spoke with As It Happens guest host Gillian Findlay about the long journey. Here is part of that conversation.

Jo, you started at St. Pancras station in London and you ended in southern Italy. How many countries did you touch in 24 hours?

I started in Britain and then through the Channel Tunnel, headed east across France, almost to the German border, and then south into Switzerland through the Alps under the Gotthard Pass, and then into Italy itself. 

So it was four countries, nine different trains…. It's about 1,960 kilometres, and I'll say completed in 24 hours with just 45 seconds to spare because the last train was slightly late.

What inspired this? Why 24 hours?

Back during the lockdown in 2020, I basically got very bored. I don't like sitting in one place. I like to travel around. I like timetables and planning and spreadsheets. 

International travel [was] impossible back then. I thought, why don't I try and work out how far I can get from London by bus in 24 hours? This was just something to keep me occupied, quite frankly. So when lockdown lifted a bit last [August], I undertook that. Did an entire day on public buses from London, leaving Trafalgar Square at about 3 a.m. and ended up in a little seaside town called Morecambe in Lancashire. 

I found it great fun. I saw an entire day of Britain's life. And people seem to really enjoy it … following along on Twitter and on social media. 

So then, you know, I love travelling in Europe. I love travelling in Europe by train. Again, something I was missing. As Europe started to open up again … [and] the COVID restrictions have gone away, I thought, what better way to sort of celebrate this and let us do this again? Let's see how far you can get from St. Pancras in a 24-hour period and see if people are interested in that. 

How much planning went into this?

Lots and lots. 

Every time you get off a train or a bus in somewhere with quite a dense public transport system, as many European countries do, obviously there's [a lot of] choices. It's like a decision tree. Do you take train A, train B or train C? Which one's going to take you further? Which one is going to not lead you into a dead end, so to speak? 

Lots of people thought, well, if you look at the furthest you can go, surely that's headed east … towards Central Europe, towards Hungary, towards Romania…. That's when I started to see just how far away from London the very far south Italy is.

You're using the time as effectively as possible for this sort of challenge … [squeezing] that last kilometre and that last minute out of it. So yes, it was several weeks with timetables, with maps, with spreadsheets. Frankly, I was in my element.

But travel is often for the experiences, and 24 hours is not a long time to have many experiences, so what were the highlights?

On the train, you're watching things change out of the window just as you go. You see the countries sort of mold together. You see the landscapes change, you hear the language change, you hear the dialects change as you go along. And often, you know, the railways themselves … are little microcosms of the countries they serve. 

Switzerland's railways are hugely efficient, and that's just like the Swiss people. The Italians, you know, they're stylish. The trains look absolutely beautiful…. French, it's really great as long as you want to go to Paris. If you want to get to the regions, it's a bit different. 

[While] travelling across Switzerland in the dining car … at 3 o'clock, everyone comes to the dining car to have a cup of peppermint tea … and the waiter was going around, taking orders. They were asking how long in seconds people wanted the tea bag in their cup. So yeah, this is a fascinating little insight into the culture of the country that I just wouldn't have got otherwise.

The other thing I think is, the trains take you to these really interesting little places…. I would have never gone to Bova Marina because it's an obscure town, on an obscure coast, in an obscure corner of Italy. But, you know, it was absolutely fascinating to go there and find this place. It's got a great volcanic beach and these beautiful cliffs. And [people there,] they don't even speak Italian. They speak a strange sort of Greek-based dialect because … ancient Greeks actually colonized that area over 2,000 years ago. I'd never have found that [out if] I'd never have gone there.

Do you think that's why so many people started investing in your travels and following you on Twitter? Is it that you were providing them … a window into all of these places that they can't go or won't go?

What it's shown is that there was a lot of pent up wanderlust out there. We've had two years where we haven't been able to travel all that much. 

So you've done 24 hours on a bus and now 24 hours on a train. What's next, Jo?

This is the question everyone keeps asking me.

I don't know. 24 hours on a canal boat, maybe? 24 hours on a horse? 

The bus and the train are the two obvious ones, so maybe I'll need a new format. 

Written by Mehek Mazhar. Interview with Jo Kibble produced by Niza Lyapa Nondo. Q&A edited for length and clarity.