Travel Time Between Cities

Free Travel Time Between Cities calculator with clear step-by-step results.

About Travel Time Between Cities

Door-to-door time is cruise time plus a fixed overhead that varies enormously by mode - ten minutes for a car against two and a half hours for a flight once check-in, security and airport transfers are counted. The effective speed figure is what reveals when a train beats a plane.

Formulas

In-motion time

Minutes = distance / cruise speed x 60

Door to door

Total = (in-motion + fixed overhead + stops x minutes per stop) x (1 + delay allowance)

Worked example

With the default values below, Travel Time Between Cities returns Door to door travel time of 6.29. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Distance between citiesminimum 1 km: 480 km
Mode of travelone of Car on motorway, Intercity train, High-speed rail, Short-haul flight, Coach or bus: Car on motorway
Stops or transfersaccepts 0–20: 2
Minutes lost per stopminimum 0 min: 15 min
Congestion or delay allowanceaccepts 0–100 %: 10 %

Results

Door to door travel time: 6.29 h
Time actually in motion: 5.05 h
Fixed overhead and stops: 40 min
Effective door-to-door speed: 76.3 km/h

Step by step

1Values used
2In-motion time
3Door to door
4Door to door travel time= 6.29 h
5Time actually in motion= 5.05 h
6Fixed overhead and stops= 40 min
7Effective door-to-door speed= 76.3 km/h

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

At what distance does flying win?

Typically above 600-800 km against high-speed rail, and above about 400 km against conventional rail. Below that, airport overhead more than cancels the cruise advantage.

Is the car overhead really only ten minutes?

Door to door, roughly - it is loading and parking. But the delay allowance matters far more for driving than for rail, so raise it for urban departures at peak times.