It probably wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that I tend to prefer tootling along in a train to twanging myself around by plane. The laidback pleasure of a good trans-continental trundle is infinitely preferable to a sweaty-palmed bunny-hop courtesy of Michael O'Leary. Yet it's a constant source of severe irritation, like itching powder on your gusset, that the pricing difference between planes and trains is so cock-eyed.It is absolutely ludicrous that it's possible to fly across the UK far, far cheaper than it is to hop on a train. Why is this? Well, there's no doubt trains are over-priced, especially if you have to travel last minute...something ticketing regimes actively seek to punish, it's so so naughty. I was shocked to discover that on the continent most countries have flat ticket fares that don't fluctuate in price like an epileptic metronome depending on how far in advance you buy them. No! You pay the same whether you book ten years or ten minutes ahead. British ambush pricing be damned!
But this aside, the main reason flights are cheaper than train journeys is all the subsidy that airlines receive, for 'regeneration' of regional airports, incentives to attract them to offer new routes, the lack of aviation fuel tax to name but a few...and it is these benefits that allow them to undercut trains.
If we levelled the playing field, as they have done in Spain, by offering cheap, reliable and fast train alternatives to flying between places like Madrid and Barcelona then passengers vote with their feet...and get on the rails (as 400,000 did last year as quoted in this article). Unfortunately this needs Government intervention, either to hypothecate a tax on short haul aviation to subsidise rail travel or just to simply remove the perverse subsidies that benefit far more carbon intensive air travel.
Anyway, before I rant my arse off here's a great campaign to sign up to from the Campaign for Better Transport and a fun little video that shows how unfair this all is...
