University official guidelines

Trips of 6 hours or less (or 500 km or less) should be taken by train rather than plane.

"At Leiden University, second class train travel is the norm for destinations which can be reached within six hours by rail. Are you planning a longer business trip by train? You may book a first-class train ticket or a sleeping place in a night train - as long as your destination is over 500 kilometres away or will take more than six hours to reach." Infos related to business trips are here

It is thus allowed to book first class train tickets or a sleeping place in a night train for trips of more than 6 hours (more than 500 km).

STRW travel policy

" While sustainability concerns and cost cutting can in some cases go hand in hand (e.g., traveling less/attending conferences remotely), there are also many instances in which they are at odds with each other (e.g., train tickets being more expensive than flying, or flights with layovers being cheaper). We will keep adhering to the University wide directive that trips of six hours or less must be taken by train rather than plane [...] We do urge everyone to consider sustainability an important aspect in this discussion."

Overall recommendation from the STRW Green Committee

Due to the current budget context, the Green committee has decided to provide guidelines instead of a real travel policy, at least as a starting base. Of course, the STRW and University travel policies listed above need to be aplied and respected. We list below some additional guidelines and recommendations.

  • When possible staff must take the train for trips of 6 hours or less (500 km or less) and we highly encourgae taking the train if your journey is within 8 hours. This was adopted by other universities such as UvA. It appears that train trips to Germany or the UK are quite a burden because of train delays and cancellations. We recommend avoiding booking trips with too short layover time between trains and try to check alternative trains in case of cancellations.
  • For PIs: Please encourage and allow train - or other ground-based - travel over plane travel if the price difference remains reasonable.
  • If there is no alternative to flying:
  • We recommend booking direct flights over indirect flights as direct plane journeys cost less CO2 emission compared to indirect ones. Uniglobe now indicates the CO2 emission when you look for flights and indicates whether a flight journey emits more or less CO2 than a "typical" flight representing the average among all available flights for the trip at the chosen dates..
  • If the first connecting flight is to an airport that can be easily reached by train (e.g., London, Paris...), we highly encourage you to go there by train.
  • In some cases, traveling via ferries is a possible solution (e.g., to reach Ireland). Traveling with other people from the group and sharing a cabin can be quite cheap.

We are aware that the STRW is curently facing travel budget cuts. However, this should not and cannot be at the expense of the environment! Here are some recommendations to keep the price of train tickets low:

  • Book as early as possible. For some rail companies (e.g., nightjet), even a fully refundable ticket can be cheaper when booked early enough.
  • Travel flexibility: Traveling one day earlier or later can reduce the price significantly. We are aware that for staff with family/teaching constraints, this can be hard to do. We encourage those without such constraints to be as flexible as possible.
  • For trains, we remind you that it is not mandatory to book them via Uniglobe. Hence, cheaper options than those offered through Uniglobe may be available online. If you do not want to advance the money for your trips, please note that you can ask for an advance through the SAP system. If you do, you must submit an expense claim no more than six weeks after your business trip.
  • Eu Rail tickets (a.k.a Interrail tickets) can be a cheaper solution if you plan more than one trip within Europe in a compact time frame (1-3 months). Different rail pass are available, starting at 4 travel days within one month (212 euros). A rail planner can be found here. N.B. Many high-speed trains require aditional seat reservation fees, but the total sum remains usually cheaper than booking separate trains, sometimes even for a single return trip.
  • Yearly/Youth discounts: Many rail companies offer youth and/or yearly discounts. Keep in mind that the Uniglobe system does not necessarily get this right!

Additional tips and tricks for travels are located in "Sustainable practice resources" here.

Finally, we highly encourage everyone to rethink their professional travels. The best way to reduce our carbon footprint linked to traveling is simple: Traveling less.So we encourage everyone to ask themselves the following questions when considering a business trip:

  • Should I attend this event in person if the online participation is offered or is my in-person attendance required?
  • Could this recurring meeting be held on line from time to time?
  • Do I really need to go to this conference? The community is the same and I already presented the same result at another similar conference earlier this year.
  • Can I combine different business trips together?
  • For PIs: Do I need to send my whole team to the same event? Maybe I can distribute my team acrosse the multiple events that are happening this year.