Train vs plane - the prices are all wrong
Posted by DavidM in Transport | 11 September 2008
Plane travel is known to be the fastest growing cause of CO2 emissions and is a key area of focus for the environmental movement.
Train travel on the other hand gets cars off the road and is to be encouraged.
But the only way to make most people adopt the least polluting transportation methods is to make it easy, pleasurable and most of all cheap.
This week my wife and I have both researched the cost of a trip and based on our experience, there's no hope in the short term of changing behaviours.
Some friends are moving to Switzerland so my wife was looking for flights to Geneva later this year. The best price she found, flying at reasonable times, was £60 return each.
Separately, I am off to Cardiff to visit friends in a few weeks and prefer to get the train than drive. Using the timetable and ticket tool at Network Rail, the cheapest I could find for the times I wanted to travel was £85! Admittedly I could get it down to £55 by travelling at some ridiculous hour.
This is mad. There is no way a commercial flight to a foreign country should be cheaper than a train journey three hours down the road.
I agree that cheap flights need to be made accountable for their real cost, but we also need to get the cost of public transport down to a level where it is more attractive than the car. At £85 I have to be very green-minded to opt for the train instead of the car.
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