What was the point of a “Hogwarts express” when there were far more efficient and faster ways of travel in the magical world ?
DiscussionYes, and it's a popular socializing event
It's the easiest and safest way to bring children into hogwarts.
Portkeys are safe too and they are much easier
They require magic from an adult. The train does not require magic. You can just dump your kids at the station.
🤣
Have you read/watched the series lol? Portkeys are susceptible to tampering, and I’m sure hundreds of students would be a prime target for someone/a group of individuals. Plus, portkeys require a load of Ministry interference/logistics that they probably don’t want to have to keep doing year after year (floo powder too). Especially for the younger students, the train setup is a good way to ease them into the whole experience, while also having older students there to help them out. Plus The Hogwarts Express is pretty safe; it never got attacked successfully or really tampered with, other than the dementor thing (which was manipulated by someone) and getting stopped once by dark wizards searching for Harry and then went on it’s way (which is more then we can say for any other mode of transportation in the series).
OOH! HP Binge Mode taught me the reason they stopped using portkeys was because portkey sickness is a real thing. The hospital wing would fill up for a few days at the start of every school year with kids who don’t do portkey travel (and I guess it’s a big problem for younger students. You can see the difference in how Harry reacts to his first portkey vs the older Weasleys and the diggorys).
Edit: students also missed their portkeys sometimes and were stuck on some random street or field touching garbage looking for their portkeys.
I think they tried flue powder too but students would occasionally miss the school fireplace and end up in some random house.
So, like the wizards did with indoor plumbing, they stole some muggle tech and the hogwarts express was born.
It’s just a really cool part of the story. And seeing it in “real” life at Universal.
It makes sure that all students arrive at the same time.
It also gives them an opportunity to socialize and bond. Especially useful for first years.
They tried portkeys, but that didn’t go so well, and the floo was considered too much of a security risk.
Portkeys were therefore arranged at collecting points all over Britain. The logistics caused problems from the start. Up to a third of students would fail to arrive every year, having missed their time slot, or been unable to find the unobtrusive enchanted object that would transport them to their school. There was also the unfortunate fact that many children were (and are) ‘Portkey-sick’, and the hospital wing was frequently full to bursting for the first few days of every year, while susceptible students overcame their hysterics and nausea.
While admitting that Portkeys were not an ideal solution to the problem of school transportation, the Ministry of Magic failed to find an acceptable alternative. A return to the unregulated travel of the past was impossible, and yet a more secure route into the school (for instance, permitting a fireplace that might be officially entered by Floo powder) was strongly resisted by successive Headmasters, who did not wish the security of the castle to be breached.
A daring and controversial solution to the thorny problem was finally suggested by Minister for Magic Ottaline Gambol, who was much intrigued by Muggle inventions and saw the potential in trains. Where exactly the Hogwarts Express came from has never been conclusively proven, although it is a fact that there are secret records at the Ministry of Magic detailing a mass operation involving one hundred and sixty-seven Memory Charms and the largest ever mass Concealment Charm performed in Britain. The morning after these alleged crimes, a gleaming scarlet steam engine and carriages astounded the villagers of Hogsmeade (who had also not realised they had a railway station), while several bemused Muggle railway workers down in Crewe spent the rest of the year grappling with the uncomfortable feeling that they had mislaid something important.
More here: https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-hogwarts-express
Wow
Not everything is accessible.
Floo powder requires a fireplace on both ends and needs to be bought.
Apparition requires training and a license and carries the risk of splinching.
Broomsticks can carry maybe up to two people and also requires to be bought.
Portkeys requires Ministry approval and there's no way that the Ministry will approve of all student households to set up Portkeys to Hogwarts.
Doesnt Hogwarts have an anti apparition (sp?) protection? Maybe that's why
Also I guess to make it easier for muggleborns
Probably helps ease the Muggle born kids and parents into it too.
Much easier on the conscience to let them put their kids on a train than have them watch their. child touch a random rotting banana peel or walk into a fire and then disappear.
best answer imho
It's cute and/or cool.
I always figured it got all the students there at the same time. Imagine Hagrid trying to round up all the 1st years with them and their parents apparating, flying in, or using the Floo network to get to Hogsmeade and then getting them to Hogwarts.
To show all are equal regardless of status from muggle born to pureblood is my guess
Atmosphere and presentation are important, and I say this very reluctantly and resignedly as a software developer with the artistic interest/talent of a small squirrel.
Even more interesting. Did the kids from Scotland have to go to London to travel back to Scotland by train?
Probably not, I suppose they fix it with Dumledore, especially Hogsmeaders
I imagine the parents in Scotland just drive their kids to Hogsmeade.
Because TRAIN
Requiring students to find their own methods of transportation caused too many logistical problems.
There’s a theory that the Express was specifically calibrated to take the whole afternoon because that’s the only way for the children get their mischief and socialising needs out of the system and focus on classes when they arrive
It’s cool. Don’t overthink this stuff.