Plane vs. Train vs. Car — A financial analysis of travel from KW to Toronto
Companies ask me all the time, “is this reasonable?” Some may give a simple yes or no answer but I like to go the extra mile; direct costs, indirect costs, and qualitative analysis.
So when asked, “Can I justify flying from KW to Toronto for a 9:00 am meeting?” we took a hands-on approach to execute a well needed experiment between flying, driving and taking the train. We ended up with a far more interesting result than anticipated.
The facts:
- Matt flies, Taylor is on the train and I’m driving.
- Everyone leaves at 6:47 am from the Kitchener Go Station when the train is scheduled to leave
3. We race to arrive in downtown Toronto, 10-minutes walking from Union Station, where Matt has an important 9:00 am meeting
4. The driver has to park in a location with all-day parking
5. First one to arrive wins!
We opened the polls, and voting for the airplane to arrive first far outweighed the other two options. I have to admit, I agreed with these predictions but the results may surprise you. We learned a lot from this process, beyond just uncontrollable variables having a dramatic influence on arrival time.
Direct Costs
The costing side of the equation is broken down into two categories: direct and indirect costs. Direct costs are simple, all cash paid that is directly related to the trip.
The train was the most cost effective alternative. You might be thinking $118.80 is much more than the cost of gas to make it to Toronto and back. The CRA prescribed rate is intended to cover fuel and the deterioration of your vehicle so it may offer an improved comparative figure. Under this assumption, the car came in at twice the cost of a round-trip train ticket. The airplane, as expected, was the most expensive option — $180 more than driving.
So now for the extra mile.
Indirect Costs
Any decent analysis should include factors beyond simply direct costs. Indirect costs still have a financial impact but aren’t so obvious. We chose to analyze the cost of unproductive time, that is the inability to accomplish work while travelling.
Matt experienced the worst case scenario; the plane he was supposed to board didn’t start, a new plane was flown in that ended up being a slow experience as well. In a realistic, “any given day” situation, the 3.33 hours likely drops to 1.25.
The interesting part is that when you factor in productivity (even under perfect flying conditions) you still can’t compensate for the dramatically higher direct cost of a plane ticket compared to the other options. The flight involves quite a few transitions making it difficult to get into a working rhythm. When taking the train, you can be productive for one hour until the masses flood the train and it becomes challenging to do anything other than juggle your bags. The drive is a complete write off when it comes to productivity.
Qualitative Analysis
Last but not least, we offer up our purely qualitative analysis (unless you want to get really technical and convert it to a financial equation).
1. On a normal day, your overall stress level is the highest while driving as it carries the greatest level of timing uncertainty. I was incredibly lucky (don’t mess with the lucky socks) and experienced little to no traffic and only one accident. The train on the other hand, provides a lot more certainty due to much smaller room for error. Taylor cut it really close and showed up exactly on time which would probably get the heart pumping for an important 9:00 am meeting. I suspect on a perfect day at the airport, Matt’s experience would have been stress-free leaving plenty of buffer to arrive on time.
2. Driving to Toronto involved constant mental awareness, and paired with the increased level of stress, it results in the highest level of mental exhaustion when you reach your arrival (not great when you have a really important meeting). The train requires almost no mental awareness; you sit down and wait for your station to be called, and if so inclined work on your new ukulele album: “Most Fire Ukulele Tracks 2017” (video 7:58 & 13:03). The flight is not for everyone (I myself am not what you’d call a “great flyer”) so the attentiveness it merits will change from person to person, but we’ll generalize it as being low.
In summary, the train stacks up quite nicely in all categories: low cost, minimal non-productive time, and relatively stress-free. Although the plane might be the fastest option on a good day, there’s quite a bit of non-productive time and it, relatively speaking, comes with a high cost ($13,000 if you flew round-trip, once per week for the entire year). Driving is high-risk but high-reward with arrival time, and combined costs falling somewhere in the middle.
So the question is, do you roll the dice on traffic while venting about SR&ED, fly in style for a pretty penny, or “do you wanna mine a bitcoin, it doesn’t have to be a bitcoin”?
How do you decide on flying vs. driving vs. train? Checkout the Facebook event or comment below to join the discussion
https://www.facebook.com/events/136854223695790/
