When traveling through Europe, the climate-friendly train is often more expensive than the plane. This was announced by environmental organization Greenpeace, which compared Europe-wide ticket prices for both modes of transport on 112 routes at different booking times.
The rail connections are 71 percent more expensive for customers than the climate-damaging air connections, the organization announced on Thursday.
In Switzerland, due to its central location, there are train connections almost everywhere. In addition, the low-cost airlines are not very present. Nevertheless, the train was more expensive for 70 percent of the connections. Flights to Spain were significantly cheaper thanks to two cheap providers with direct connections. The most expensive train ticket Zurich-Madrid costs more than 480 francs. The train to Vienna and Berlin, on the other hand, was almost always cheaper.
Flying to Zagreb was only cheaper on days with direct cheap flights. For Zurich-Brussels, the train costs less than a long-term flight, but more than a short-term flight. Geneva-Paris was cheaper on the plane for seven days out of nine because of the daily Easyjet flight.
Europe-wide kerosene tax demanded
In 31 connections with a start or end point in Germany, the train was more expensive in half of the cases. The testers recorded the largest price difference on the Barcelona-London route, which should cost up to 384 euros (about 369 francs) by train.
That is 30 times more than by plane with a ticket price of 12.99 euros. The trains on the Hamburg-Brussels and Hamburg-Munich routes were always cheaper.
Greenpeace traffic expert Marisa Reiserer argued for a European kerosene tax of 50 cents per litre, which would generate an annual revenue of 46.2 billion euros. In addition, the VAT exemption for flights in the European Union should be abolished, which would generate 10 billion euros.
These funds should be channeled to the rail infrastructure. Reiser said:
(saw/sda/dpa)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
