In Europe, flying is cheaper than taking the train.
It's an embarrassment, and a major problem: we have to stop flying for silly short distances. Realise that the overheads of flying (reaching the airport, awaiting 2 hours, the flight, the unloading, reaching the destination) largely cancel out any time gains of flying. And the carbon costs are utterly untenable. Not to speak of the modern, dire conditions of the whole flying "experience".
Another embarrassment is that train connections can't be guaranteed when across countries or companies. They aren't even coordinated. As if those who commission and set the schedules didn't travel by train themselves, at least not internationally. In considering how tiny most European countries are, it's frankly bizarre.
There are so many destinations one could travel by train to, yet in practice, it's not sensible. A disgrace.
@albertcardona The unsaid part of this is that the cheap airlines are private (and hence efficient), while most train companies are either public or semi-public, and hence both expensive and inefficient. If you take a look at Polish train prices, which aren't that bad compared to other places, going by car instead becomes more affordable at 3 to 4 people, assuming normal tickets. This makes no sense, there's no way a car is more efficient than a train.
@cybertailor@albertcardona Do the cheap airlines get any of these? I was under the impression that most subsidies go to the expensive state-owned enterprises like Lufthansa, KLM, British Airways or Lot.
The money is one part of the disgrace, the other part is that some European countries (looking at you, Germany!) just have a completely dysfunctional rail system. My wife and I are traveling by train regularly and, e.g., 3-hour delays on 5h trips, while not the rule, occur frequently enough to always consider in your travel plans.
It's gotten so bad that even for the 1h train ride to the airport we now have to factor in a 1h delay or keep the car in reserve.
Sorry to hear. Back in the late 2000s I travelled quite a bit across Germany by train and the experience was always delightful.
What you describe is too close to the current state of British railway, which is so unreliable that, well, one can't rely on it for anything time-sensitive. It is only infrastructure if the system operates so smoothly one grows to rely on it completely. The UK's railway is more akin to a fair joyride: something one goes into for the thrill of it, knowingly.
My rule of thumb would be, if there's a train route that can make the journey in less than 8 hours, there's no reason to fly at all. Flying will take about as much time when including the overheads, and most hours will be wasted rather than comfortably sitting on a train.
Distance is not a factor; time is. E.g., London-Bergen, in Norway, would be quite difficult to replace by train or boat. Whereas London-Barcelona, which is about the same distance, is easy: there already is a route with Eurostar + TGV via Paris.
@albertcardona
We tried to go by train (and ferry, of course) from the Netherlands to El Jadida in Morocco. It proved impossible. The total cost of trains, busses, taxis, and necessary overnight hotel stays could have bought us a flight ticket around the world. Aside from that, trying to find out what might be possible and to make all the bookings was a full-time job for days. We failed.
I hear you – same here. One wonders, how much of the price difference are fuel and airport subsidies to airline companies. If that much tax-payer money has to go to flying to make it affordable, I'd rather it was allocated to the railway. Far more humane, less noisy, less hassle, far lower carbon footprint, far more pleasant.
If it involves one big leg only like the Eurostar or a single German ICE train or French Grande Lignes, then yes, travelling by train is smooth. Issue is when one has to make connections across countries and railway companies.
@albertcardona So true! And even within the UK it's so expensive to travel from place to place that people are no doubt using cars or planes instead. Have a look at the cost of a return ticket from Bristol to London for example.
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