On the road again.
If you happen to be reading this on Sunday morning, I shall be hitchhiking across the middle of the Istrian peninsula in Croatia: from the pretty coastal town of Rovinj to the administrative centre, Pazin, and onward to Rijeka – the city from which I am booked to fly to London on Sunday afternoon.
The first bus of the day is at 4.40am. Too early for me. The next is at 12noon, which would not get me to the airport early enough. So I shall, once again, place my travel fortunes in the hands of strangers.
So far this week, hitchhiking has worked out well. I have not been thumbing for the sake of it, but purely to fill gaps in public transport: either where there is none at all, particularly close to international frontiers, or where there are hours to wait between buses.
For example, I paid a prodigious amount to Swiss Federal Railways for a ticket to the northernmost railway station in Switzerland (Schaffhausen) and onwards by bus to the village of Bargen. But as often happens, public transport expires short of frontiers – in this case with Germany. Franz helped out.
Later that same day, en route to the source of the Danube, I faced a 90-minute wait for a bus, which was eliminated courtesy of Sergei. From the Danube to the Rhine, where Karina picked me up after travelling on the international free ferry that connects Germany with France.
Organised ridesharing was less successful. A week ago I arrived in Milan to discover a rail strike was in progress. I wanted to reach the Swiss border at Chiasso and duly put in a request at BlaBlaCar, the pan-European rideshare company. Several possible drivers popped up – but each of them, in turn, said, “Actually I’m not making that journey now,” except for the last, who simply didn’t respond.
Yet locally organised ridesharing is the best hope for rural transport for the future. After Labour took power, I posted my recommendations for the most pressing issues on social media. Sort out the rail disputes, of course; tax aviation in line with environmental harm; and, I added: “Road pricing is essential.”
The response was fast and mainly furious. One of the more polite ripostes was from Paul Saxton, who wrote: “Road pricing will hit people in rural areas where there is no alternative to using your car, as public transport is non-existent.”
Pushing up tax for rural…
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