Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

If short-haul flights which have a reasonable train alternative were banned, Europe's CO₂ emissions would decrease. This report, which we produced for Greenpeace, looks at the extent to which train alternatives exist to short-haul flights in Europe. Based on a list of the most popular flight routes, we have gathered data on travel time by train on the same routes, both in 2021 and before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019. We also collected data on the routes that train follow, on the number of transfers required, and on the distances travelled by train. These analyses look at the 250 busiest short-haul flight routes in Europe, at the 150 intra-EU short-haul flight routes, and at the most popular flight routes for a few individual European countries.

Authors: Lorenzo Ferrari and Gianluca De Feo
Language: English