A new study by Greenpeace has revealed that train travel to and from the Netherlands is 50 percent more expensive than flying on average.
After examining the prices of 112 routes across Europe, Greenpeace found that rail travel was cheaper on just 23 of the routes. Meanwhile, on average, trips between cities cost almost twice as much when made by train instead of by plane. "The route that stands out is the one from London to Barcelona," Faiza Oulahsen, head of climate and energy at Greenpeace, told NOS. "That train journey is 10 to 30 times more expensive than the plane.”
Of the eight routes assessed by Greenpeace that departed from or arrived in the Netherlands, the organisation found that only one route was cheaper via rail than by air: Amsterdam to Warsaw. On average, rail tickets were found to cost 50 percent more than flights.
Greenpeace is therefore calling on the Dutch government to do more to make flying more expensive and rail travel more affordable for passengers. “This report shows the extent to which European citizens are encouraged to fly,” Herwig Schuster, mobility expert at Greenpeace, told Het Parool. “Low-cost airlines in particular crawl through all the loopholes to offer flights at outrageously low prices.”
The organisation points out that, while passengers now pay 26 euros in tax for each airline ticket, the aviation industry still benefits from low taxes on kerosene and a 0 percent VAT rate on international flights, allowing airlines to provide flights at relatively low prices.
Greenpeace would like to see European governments introduce so-called climate tickets - “affordable and simple tickets that are valid on all forms of public transport in a country or region, including all trains and cross-border transport,” Schuster explains - and bring an end to subsidies for airlines and airports.
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