Challenges in Replacing More European Short Haul Flights by Rail
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Abstract
Within the European Union 18% of all flights cover a distance shorter than 500 kilometres. 67% of these flights are domestic and the remaining 33% is international. When looking in further detail at all short haul (< 500 km) flights in the EU, it has been found that on average, taking the train takes twice as long compared to taking the plane. However, almost 20% of these short haul flights, rail offers a faster or similarly fast alternative compared to taking the plane. This suggests that almost 20% of all short haul air routes in Europe can be replaced by rail.
However, this research has proven that it is not that easy as it seems. During the case study interviews several challenges have been identified, providing potential reasons why such short haul flights are retained. It seems like the largest challenge is to convince passengers to take the train instead of the plane. Flights are often still preferred because of among others: the bad reputation of railways, the lack of good luggage check-in facilities at train stations and the absence of direct high-speed rail connections to the airport.
On the other hand, the case study research on short haul flights for which no fast rail alternative is present has shown that geographical issues are the largest factor causing long travel times. This makes the introduction of high-speed rail extremely cost intensive and is therefore often not present. However, the EU is supporting several initiatives to improve the travel time for (parts of) these routes. In the coming decades travel times for these routes should slowly improve, bringing Europe one step closer in realising a modal share shift from air to rail
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