We’re always being told that train travel is more environmentally-friendly than air travel. But could more be done to make train travel cheaper in Europe?
Until the rise of the budget airlines in Europe during the Nineties, short-haul air travel was an expensive business. For journeys under about 500 miles, trains were cheaper.
Now, it’s a different story. I’ve just been looking at travel between Milan and Rome this coming July. It’s a distance of 355 miles between the two cities. Since the collapse of Alitalia, easyJet and Ryanair have been taken over domestic flights in Italy. A one-way ticket on easyJet is 23.99 euros and takes an hour. Yet on one of the fast trains, taking 4hours, roughly equivalent to the total city centre to city centre time by plane, the fare is 55 euros if you buy two weeks in advance.
And in Britain, the situation can be even crazier. Air travel can now often be the cheapest form of travel. My retired father found that it was cheaper to travel from his home in Luton by easyJet to Glasgow in Scotland than by National Express (Britain’s version of Greyhound). And that was with National Express’s Over 60’s discount included as well! The flight takes about an hour compared with ten hours on the coach. What option would you choose?
If the European Union is serious about reducing carbon emissions from air travel, then it needs to look at ways of making longer-distance train travel within the EU cheaper and easier.
