Flying in Europe up to 30 times cheaper than train, says Greenpeace - how prices of popular routes compare

Flying in Europe is on average half the price of travelling the exact same route by train, according to a major new report from Greenpeace.

In some cases, such as for the journey between London and Barcelona, the cost of taking the train is an eye-watering 30 times the cost of jumping on a plane. This is in spite of the fact that the overall environmental impact of air travel is approximately 80 times worse than rail travel.

The campaign group, which analysed 112 European routes and compared the prices on nine different days, has called on politicians and governments to make trains the cheaper option - “for the sake of people and the planet” - as it claimed that low-cost airlines and “unfair pricing strategies” are “destroying the climate”.

Why are trains more expensive than planes?

One explanation for the price disparity, according to Greenpeace, is that the “system favours air travel over rail”. It explained: “While airlines benefit from subsidies paid with taxpayer money and do not have to pay VAT on international flights, train companies have to pay VAT, energy taxes, and high rail tolls in most countries”.

“In short: if you fly, you are subsidised; if you take the train, you are punished by higher prices – as well as the fact that the journey is often longer,” said Stefan Gössling, a professor at Linnaeus University in Sweden who has studied flight and train emissions. This, campaigners argued, is something governments have the power to change.

Train fares are also being hiked because flying is simply more popular - and so companies are having to charge more to cope with the lower demand. But this is also something that can be rectified, Greenpeace said, pointing to the fact that many rail companies do not offer tickets more than two or three months in advance, meaning people planning trips ahead of schedule often opt for a flight.

The other problem is that there is not an equivalent train route for every flight path. If companies worked to expand their services, the group argued, more people would be able to choose rail travel.

Which countries have the best and worst train options?

Overall, the countries with the most expensive train tickets compared to flights were the UK, France, Belgium, Spain and Italy. The UK performed worse than average, with people paying four times as much for rail travel than air travel - even for in-country routes such as between London and Edinburgh, or London and Glasgow.

The report also found that even the “really effective” train routes in Europe, such as Amsterdam to London or Toulouse to Paris, are still among the continent’s most popular short-haul flights. Taking a plane between these places remains cheaper than taking a train.

If you’re looking for the best train routes, try Portugal - as Lisbon to Porto came out on top for domestic travel. Meanwhile, Berlin to Prague, Zurich to Vienna, and Prague to Budapest were found to be the best for international travel.

How do air and rail prices compare for the most popular routes in Europe?

To make the disparity even clearer, NationalWorld has looked at some of the most popular routes in Europe - and compared the cheapest option for a plane or train if you were to book a journey for a month’s time.

The report has been released as holiday destinations across Europe report sky-high temperatures - with red alerts for extreme heat in place in most of Italy’s main cities. The heatwave, which has swept across the country, has been described by local media as settimana infernale - or “week of hell”.

Elsewhere, wildires are raging in Greece - and temperatures are predicted to hit 45C in some parts of Spain. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organisation, urged world leaders to “act now” - writing on Twitter on Monday (17 July): “In many parts of the world, today is predicted to be the hottest day on record. The #ClimateCrisis is not a warning. It’s happening.”