this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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This is the report:
https://greenpeace.at/uploads/2023/07/report-ticket-prices-of-planes-vs-trains-in-europe.pdf
While undoubtedly the train fares are unreasonably expensive in several routes specially in UK, the comparison is mostly for longer routes like London to Barcelona or Madrid to Brussels, where you need to change several trains from different operators. Few would be willing to try such a route.
These kind of routes are not much favourable to trains and also the quoted Ryanair fare, I doubt 12.9β¬ is a last minute fare, it probably doesn't include airport fees and extras you might want like a luggage and so on.
Iβm looking at going from Barcelona to Paris, both plane and train has direct connections and on the dates I am considering, itβs about 50 eur for the plane and 130 eur for the train each way. Both the airport and trains station are close to me and the trains also has a security check and the queue that comes with that, so Iβm still not sure what Iβm going to pick.
funny, I was looking at the same connection in autumn and the price difference was similar. I have no problem with the longer trip, but the cost is prohibitive. for two people the train tickets from Germany to Paris and then onwards to Barcelona are ~700β¬ round trip. flights are less then 400β¬, and that's a regular airline not Ryanair...
The difference will not be as big as it seems, 50 Euro is perhaps Ryanair basic fare. I am sure they will charge you for even the carry-on luggage and they fly you far away from Paris. If you go to CDG it will be around 100 euro which is still less than the train but not much more.
Milan Paris is served by TGV InOui and Trenitalia and the prices were nowhere near that different. Trenitalia is somewhere between 80-120 Euro each way which is the similar price you would pay for EasyJet on this same route. When I took this train last week (both ways) they tended to be full, you normally cannot find last minute tickets, so the demand is there it seems.
Don't get me wrong there is a lot of room for improvement (really a lot) try to go a bit further maybe to go to Venice instead of Milan and you are looking at 150-200 Euro fare and that's with the same operator.