A new report by environmental campaign group Greenpeace says that air travel within Europe is up to 30 times cheaper than traveling by more sustainable trains.
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.
This is definitely a bullshit comparison because there’s no way that flight doesn’t come with a ton of airport and processing fees and taxes, making its final price many times what’s listed here:
the cost of the train was 384 euros (about $430) compared to 12.99 euros for the Ryanair flight – making the train 29.6 times more expensive than the plane.
Yeah they’re taking the first price Ryanair advertise, rather than the final price you end up paying. Also, you can’t bring anything with you at that price, just your carry on bag.
Meanwhile, cutting out the UK, a train from Paris to Barcelona can be had for €45 if you book well in advance (2 months), maybe even less than that.
I’m from Germany, and none of the things you said are true. For example, to get from Aachen Central station to Hamburg Central station the cheapest option is 23,90€, but that connection is from 8pm to 3am. If you want to ride in the day, your cheapest price is the Quer-Durchs-Land-Ticket (“Cross-Country Ticket”) at 44€. But that way you are only allowed to use regional trains, which will make it a 7 hour train ride. If you want to use intercity trains (still a 5 hour ride), you will pay around 70-90€. And all of that is for 2nd class.
The age cutoff for children to travel for free is 6 years, children from 6-14 and 15-27 years travel at variously reduced prices (39€ for regional-only, 42€ for intercity).
I don’t know where you got your information, but here in Germany, we are in the same situation as the UK. And while trains in the UK may be painfully slow on cross-country travel, I have felt that they were much more comfortable to travel on, given the absolutely abysmal state of a lot of our trains.
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.
While this is true, there’s a big asterisk attached to the statement.
DB adjusts the ticket price based on how many seats are still empty (asking other things).
Which means the earlier you book the cheaper the tickets are. But prices can ramp up quickly.
For an unpopular connection (mostly through the night) it can be enough to book 1 week in advance.
However for popular connections at prime times you gotta book at least a month in advance.
Depending on circumstances, it’s nice and it sucks at the same time.
This is definitely a bullshit comparison because there’s no way that flight doesn’t come with a ton of airport and processing fees and taxes, making its final price many times what’s listed here:
Yeah they’re taking the first price Ryanair advertise, rather than the final price you end up paying. Also, you can’t bring anything with you at that price, just your carry on bag.
Meanwhile, cutting out the UK, a train from Paris to Barcelona can be had for €45 if you book well in advance (2 months), maybe even less than that.
you can definitely fly at just the advertised price. been there, done that. paid 16 € for a ticket, no extra fees.
I’m from Germany, and none of the things you said are true. For example, to get from Aachen Central station to Hamburg Central station the cheapest option is 23,90€, but that connection is from 8pm to 3am. If you want to ride in the day, your cheapest price is the Quer-Durchs-Land-Ticket (“Cross-Country Ticket”) at 44€. But that way you are only allowed to use regional trains, which will make it a 7 hour train ride. If you want to use intercity trains (still a 5 hour ride), you will pay around 70-90€. And all of that is for 2nd class.
The age cutoff for children to travel for free is 6 years, children from 6-14 and 15-27 years travel at variously reduced prices (39€ for regional-only, 42€ for intercity).
I don’t know where you got your information, but here in Germany, we are in the same situation as the UK. And while trains in the UK may be painfully slow on cross-country travel, I have felt that they were much more comfortable to travel on, given the absolutely abysmal state of a lot of our trains.