Train fares are up to 30 times more expensive than planes in Europe

Don't wanna be that guy but this article is a tad bit misleading. 13 euros for a plane ticket is an anomaly and probably due to governments funding airlines to encourage tourism to their countries.

That said, a couple hours on a rickety Ryanair for <13 euros beats buying a bunch of train tickets and the stress involved. Downside is missing out on getting to stop in some cool places and see some pretty sights with comfy leg room. (Also trains are more efficient due to the amount of people boarding)

Completely crazy. I can’t wait till they fix this.

We need to tax kerosene at the EU level. Would be a good way to have an independent revenue for federal institutions

Im sorry but 12$ for a plane ticket. Anywhere. That sounds either a lie or fishy.

Maybe its 12$ and then 100 for “fees Of 70$ for any bag. Or something

Or the air company is trying to destroy trains and is flying at a loss.

Kerosene should be taxed by an EU-wide tax.

As of 2023, commercial kerosene consumption is currently tax exempt under the legislation of all member states of the European Union.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene_tax

This article is a load of bullshit. They basically only compared train prices from the UK to Europe and said it was more than flying. Sure, but that's because train prices in the UK are ridiculous, not because train prices in Europe are ridiculous. The UK is the outlier, always has been.

Taking a train in the UK, even across the UK, is sometimes more expensive than driving - it usually is when you factor in getting from a station to somewhere else. Meanwhile, taking a train within Europe is generally very affordable. The difference is the governments in the mainland actually regulate and ensure investment.

In Germany you can get a train to anywhere in the country for about €20, and children up to 14 are free. There's also Interrail tickets you can get across Europe that cover regions or countries, when the UK was a part of this system the UK-wide ticket cost roughly the price of 3 EU countries, even though the UK is much smaller.

In France it's pure greed. The government keeps trying to pawn off any public utility that doesn't generate revenue since that Jupiter wannabe took office. I don't know how politicians convinced billions of people that public utilities must be profitable...

In Germany, it's greed. I remember 18 years ago a train ride to the next city to go to the movies was 1.30 euros. Today it costs 5.80 euros. That's not inflation, that's just greed.

Doesn’t really go into the reasons for the price difference?? I doubt kerosene subsidies counts for everything?

Btw I like trains and think we should ban a lot of flights that can be serviced with quick alternatives

Price is not even the issue for me, it’s availability. I tried to book a ticket from Zurich to London for December. There are apparently not connections available anymore. I would gladly pay more than if I would be taking a plane, just give me the option…

Ok, apart from the biased article, the price (that sometimes is a bit more for trains than flights) isn't as much of a problem as the mix and match of railway systems across europe which makes it awfully difficult to get from here to there fast and without a lot of changing trains. Each change is a risk of being late once your train is delayed and then your whole journey is off.

For the love of God, I really tried to find a train connection to Pula from Munich. I really tried. Even thought going through Italy, and taking a ferry from Venice. But it would have required changing trains 6 times or so and would have taken approx. 24 hours, whilst being indeed more expensive - as far as I could tell, since I cannot buy all the tickets at one place. I still feel horrible but I ended up flying there. If I was by myself I would have taken on the trip with the changes. Or considered a coach although all my experiences with coaches sucked so hard. But with a one year old it was just not feasible.

Adam Something has a great video on why trains in Europe are... Not as simple.

People don't vote for these kinds of things. They just complain about it and then vote for whichever party shouts the loudest about immigration which, as we all know, is the most important issue on the planet. Nothing could ever be more important

This is the report:

https://greenpeace.at/uploads/2023/07/report-ticket-prices-of-planes-vs-trains-in-europe.pdf

While undoubtedly the train fares are unreasonably expensive in several routes specially in UK, the comparison is mostly for longer routes like London to Barcelona or Madrid to Brussels, where you need to change several trains from different operators. Few would be willing to try such a route.

These kind of routes are not much favourable to trains and also the quoted Ryanair fare, I doubt 12.9€ is a last minute fare, it probably doesn't include airport fees and extras you might want like a luggage and so on.

I think their business model is ripping off tourists by charging excessive bag fees while EU residents with small bags get to fly cheaply.

Yup, and in the Netherlands the main train company is planning to make it even more expensive on purpose, in order to discourage people from taking the train.

I wish it made sense for me to take bus or train to visit family on the other end of Europe, but it's both more expensive. Makes me feel half bad about a trip I should enjoy. Why is everything upside down?

This is why I'm flying to Edinburgh soon rather than taking the train (like I would prefer to). So much cheaper

I used to think as a child everyone in Europe is super rich. Because they always travel by planes

I don't think train can compete with a long distance means of transportation that is

1- equally or less time consuming.

2- works very similarly across countries.

3- only needs infrastructure at the start and end stops instead of for the whole journey.

What we need is to figure out a way to use less polluting, carbon neutral or non-polluting fuel for airplanes, and less of it with more efficient designs.

And in Paris it could cost you an extra €60 or something if there's random ticket check and you can't provide that you have the ticket. As a tourist I've seen this myself in Bir-Hakeim Station. Please keep your ticket, don't throw it away!

if the train network was even half as robust as the motor ways i would take a train in a heartbeat. but, they are often way too expensive, long trips have you hop 12+ tracks and to top it off there is literally little to no railway in america left anymore, especially if youre trying to travel west...

In Japan, it can be cheaper to fly than to take the shinkansen (bullet train), but the trains are much more convenient. No security checks like air travel, no waiting in line for ages, no going out of the way to get to an airport (one of "Tokyo"'s airports is actually a prefecture over in Chiba), etc.

I wonder what it costs to maintain rolling stock and railway lines with their associated infrastructure.

Planes don't have to maintain bridges and level crossings on their entire route.

Monopoly or near it. Planes have to compete.

Privatization backfiring?

Hope that stupid shit stays away from here. Choo choo mothafaker!

Die DB vereint das schlechte von Zentral- und Osteuropa, aber auch Westeuropa: Teuer UND Scheiße.

#Trains are mostly dead to me. Not just because of price, but also price inconsistency¹, the exclusive info systems² & payment shenanigans³.

1. Train fare from country A to country B can by bought in either country via the national rail provider. Each quote different prices for the same train. (the EU had some agenda to fix this, but apparently it has failed)

2. Tor users are blocked from even seeing which trains are available, and if that exclusivity doesn’t stop you sometimes there are extra hoops to see the prices.

3. Cash payers often have to pay much more than online payers (#warOnCash). Complex promos also make a game of it. E.g. there will be a cross-border weekend fare, but you cannot buy that ticket from your departure point. You have to take a train to the bordering town, get off the train, and buy the cheap cross-border ticket in that station, then get the next train.

Buses are:

• cheaper most of the time
• have open platforms (no blockade against Tor users or CAPTCHAs)
• ironically have lower GHG than trains according to British research

Dang, no wonder America decided to scrap passenger trains altogether and go all-in on planes and cars (and buses if you can't afford either).