Train travel is often more expensive than flying. Could taxing aviation to invest in the rail industry help change that?
We just booked travel for Paris and Munich later on this year (from the Netherlands) and the trains were definitely more expensive than flying.
We could afford the extra cost so we went for trains to do the more environmentally sound thing, but it does feel like there needs to be a better solve for this.
To be fair, trains in the Netherlands, specially the Thalys, are particularly expensive compared to trains in France or southern Europe.
France bans domestic short-haul flights*
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- except for private planes
And just how are they doing this for the environment given private planes footprints? (I know, any step is better than none, it just feels like we’re going for the scraps and ignoring the big hitters)
it never was and will never be about the environment.
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on the image is actually a swiss train passing by the lake of walensee.
Yeah I am assuming someone just tried to grab a pretty stock photo of “europe train” and this was an easy pick
Well, it depends on how it’s done.
If they are just gonna remove the tax exemption on airplanes (they should… and don’t forget private ones too!) without in turn making the train and other greener alternatives exempt of taxes… then that’s not really encouraging the use of the train, but just making the cost of travel higher overall.It makes no sense to me how sometimes even the cost of the gas for driving a private car to cross the country is cheaper than doing the same via a public transport like the train…
