IS this accurate, though?
Anyone who lives in or knows Europe is well aware that it’s much cheaper and faster to fly over HSR on that continent.
If you have time and don’t feel like dealing with airports/planes, the train is a preferable option, but it comes at more cost.
It’s not true in general. It can be cheaper, but it can be more expensive.
Source: I have traveled either plane or HSR twice a week for the last ten years, journeys between 200 and 500km. Anything longer than that I always fly, for time reasons (I try to avoid sleeping in hotels so I can be with my kids the next morning).
In general, it depends on the distance, country and day of the week. Italy and Spain are great for trains, Germany much more hit and miss, but you can still get 19 or 29 euro tickets. Ryanair used to offer those but it’s much more rare nowadays. I have no data for France but I hear TGV is also good and they are working on reducing domestic flights.
For my typical journey (usually booked with short notice, 1 to 3 weeks) I pay a maximum of 220 euros for train, the average a bit lower, and about 500 for flights, average maybe 400. And this is comparing first class, flex ticket for train versus economy class cheapest ticket for plane.
Full disclosure: the train price includes a 50% discount that I get for 400 euros a year (BahnCard50). The ammortized price of the card is well under 10 euros a ticket.
Fun fact: you can get a BahnCard100 which gives you a 100% discount on tickets, so flat fee for a while year. My company policy does not allow this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Airplane fuel is basically untaxed worldwide due to the Chicago convention. But also infrastructure costs for HSR are very high and scale with distance whereas the opposite is true for planes.
In Germany, HSR also has to pay fees to use the rails (while cars get to use roads for free). Plus there is always a push to make it profitable, which results in constant rising prices.
IS this accurate, though?
Anyone who lives in or knows Europe is well aware that it’s much cheaper and faster to fly over HSR on that continent. If you have time and don’t feel like dealing with airports/planes, the train is a preferable option, but it comes at more cost.
It’s not true in general. It can be cheaper, but it can be more expensive. Source: I have traveled either plane or HSR twice a week for the last ten years, journeys between 200 and 500km. Anything longer than that I always fly, for time reasons (I try to avoid sleeping in hotels so I can be with my kids the next morning).
In general, it depends on the distance, country and day of the week. Italy and Spain are great for trains, Germany much more hit and miss, but you can still get 19 or 29 euro tickets. Ryanair used to offer those but it’s much more rare nowadays. I have no data for France but I hear TGV is also good and they are working on reducing domestic flights.
For my typical journey (usually booked with short notice, 1 to 3 weeks) I pay a maximum of 220 euros for train, the average a bit lower, and about 500 for flights, average maybe 400. And this is comparing first class, flex ticket for train versus economy class cheapest ticket for plane.
Full disclosure: the train price includes a 50% discount that I get for 400 euros a year (BahnCard50). The ammortized price of the card is well under 10 euros a ticket.
Fun fact: you can get a BahnCard100 which gives you a 100% discount on tickets, so flat fee for a while year. My company policy does not allow this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Isn’t Airplane Kerosene heavily subsidized here? I feel like trains would be cheaper if they were given a fair chance.
Airplane fuel is basically untaxed worldwide due to the Chicago convention. But also infrastructure costs for HSR are very high and scale with distance whereas the opposite is true for planes.
Sounds plausible. I’ve no idea.
In Germany, HSR also has to pay fees to use the rails (while cars get to use roads for free). Plus there is always a push to make it profitable, which results in constant rising prices.