Sometime back, before covid, we were talking about what would help more people pick the train.
Yes, price factored, but we realised that many people didn't even know someone who had been on a long distance train journey. So, we decided to collate travel stories.
Myself and Jennie worked hard and brought together an initial group of stories on 196Destinations.com it was from families travelling, solo female travellers couples and solo male travellers. Turns out everyone can travel this way, but yes, it's not always easy to find the information.
Around this time there was an opportunity to provide information on the competition between high speed trains in Spain, and the first incarnation of totravelto.com was born. We were manually entering data, with the hope of eventually getting API access. We were a very small part of the success story that has greatly reduced the amount of flights between Barcelona and Madrid, that was previously the number 1 flight route in the whole EU in 2018!
Finally, we have API access to train data, via another friendly startup. THANK YOU. Also at this time an opportunity presented itself via the amazing AI, ChatGPT, that many are now familiar with. Could we use this to help make it easier to plan longer, flight replacing trips to on the top 30 flight routes across Europe? YES, we can.
We now have a demo, that you can go on the wait list for, and are happy how it is continuing to develop.
To raise a little cash, Ian and friends, can use the experience gain from travelling Europe by train, and help you. Please donate a coffee, and then book a time in the calendar to help you. We can also help donaters via WhatsApp.
Many thanks, and here's to a low-carbon 2024 :)
Ian.