According Greenpeaceone of the reasons why Europeans prefer the plane to the train is the ticket prices : “Why pay €322 to connect Paris to Valencia (Spain) by train when the same plane journey costs €25.99?“
In a report comparing rail transport to aviation, the environmental NGO scrutinized the prices of 112 European air and rail connections, taking into account journeys between cities less than 1,500 kilometers apart. Priority has been given to connections between European capitals, including an itinerary “ correct » (less than 24 hours) by train is available.
In France, a train ticket, all routes combined, costs on average 2.6 times more than a plane ticket. This is the 3rd biggest price difference (tied with Belgium) among all the countries analyzed, after the United Kingdom (4 times) and Spain (3.9 times). In Germany or the Netherlands, the difference is much less (1.5 times). On 17 of the 20 routes analyzed from France, the plane is mostly cheaper. For two other routes, the train is cheaper for only a few days, but remains more expensive on average.
The only exception for France is the Geneva-Paris route, where the train is cheaper for seven days out of the nine analyzed. With a train ticket costing on average almost eight times more than a plane ticket (and up to twelve times for a specific day), Paris-Valencia (Spain) is the route with the greatest price difference found for France. The average ratio is barely lower (6.7 times) for the Marseille-London route.
“ In Europe, train tickets are on average twice as expensive as plane tickets for the same journey, a journey between Barcelona and London even costing up to 30 times more! », recalls the NGO in its report, noting that « this abysmal price difference » goes against the climate emergency. “Citizens deserve clean, affordable and efficient transportation. It is high time to make the train more affordable than the plane in Europe”, she underlines.
A summary of the report Comparative analysis of the price of plane and train tickets in Europe from Greenpeace is available on its website.
