Choosing Trains Over Planes - Travelling to the EUNETHYDIS ADHD Conference

I was travelling to the EUNETHYDIS conference with another lab colleague, Alice Barnes, and was excited to start my 3-train adventure through Europe! Alice and I literally bumped into each other on the escalator going up to the train at St Pancras, only to wave goodbye as I had booked the quiet coach to get some work done. I’ve found that I'm very productive when on a train, much more so than on an uncomfortable plane!

We reunited in Brussels, found our Cologne train with ease, and thought we were on track for a smooth journey. Once we reached Germany, messages about delays and cancellations began to ping in. We arrived late in Cologne to discover that our connection to Bonn had been cancelled. Luckily, a faster train to Bonn was waiting across the platform, and - despite some uncertainty about tickets - we hopped on and arrived earlier than planned. A small victory over German rail!

The EUNETHYDIS conference brings together experts in ADHD from both academic and clinical fields. This was my first time at the conference, and I found it very friendly and energetic. I presented a poster on work from the ADHD Remote Technology study of cardiometabolic risk factors and medication adherence (ART-CARMA study: preliminary findings of using Bluetooth connections as a proxy for sociability and its associations with depression traits in adults with ADHD.

I enjoyed the thrilling debates at the conference, where a critical topic in ADHD was debated by chosen EUNETHYDIS members in a humorous yet rigorously evidence-based manner. Specifically, I enjoyed the debate on whether young people with ADHD self-report on their ADHD symptoms. The discussions were very relevant to the study I’m currently coordinating - ADHD Remote Technology and ADHD transition: predicting and preventing negative outcomes (ART-transition), where we are using remote monitoring measures to understand what changes take place for young people with ADHD in their transition into adulthood, and how we can predict these changes – watch this space!

Trains were not the only form of transport we used, as we also travelled on a dinner river cruise down the Rhine River. Though it was dark by the time we set off, the illuminated city skyline along the Rhine created a magical backdrop as we toasted the conference awardees. It was a great reminder of the value of in-person meetings!

On the walk to Bonn station, I wandered through the historic streets of the former West German capital and browsed shops for gifts to take back to our families. I particularly enjoyed the Beethoven Museum shop, which features a prominent figure of Beethoven and a wide range of Beethoven-themed goods. Bonn proudly celebrates being the composer’s birthplace.

I’m a keen train fan and always choose to take the train where possible to reduce my carbon emissions and for a more enjoyable journey. I often use the Seat61 website to plan my journey. The website advised booking a longer interchange in Cologne to account for any German rail delays. This advice was helpful in the end, as the local German trains were disrupted yet again. Alice had less luck but still managed to make the connections. A quick intercity in Brussels left for the final train, the Eurostar to London. As the day shifted into evening, my earlier productivity had given way to post-conference exhaustion, and I enjoyed a much-needed train nap!

Overall, I really enjoyed travelling to the conference by train. Reducing my carbon footprint was a primary motivation, but I also found the journey itself more relaxing and sociable than flying. That said, it came as a personal challenge for me, as I was away from my daughter for a little longer than I would have been if I had flown. She still reminds her about my “holiday” in Germany and how much she missed me. Yet low-carbon travel matters for her future as well as the planet, and I hope that, one day, she’ll understand why it was worth it!

With the growth of overnight and high-speed rail across Europe, I’m hopeful more researchers and academics will embrace low-carbon travel, and I’m very grateful to IGUANA for making this possible. Minor chaos aside, the trip proved that low-carbon travel is not only possible but genuinely enjoyable