Go on vacation quickly and cheaply? For many travelers, the plane is the only option. The environmental organization Greenpeace has found out that plane tickets cost on average only half as much as a trip by train. In a recent analysis, she compared the flight and train fares on 112 routes in Europe on different days. It also came out where it can be particularly cheap or expensive for travelers.
Train tickets are the most expensive in Great Britain, Spain, Belgium, France and Italy. Getting on the plane is particularly worthwhile for travelers there. For example, if you travel from Barcelona to London, you pay 30 times more if you take the train. According to Greenpeace, this is by far the most expensive route in Europe. follow her
According to Greenpeace, the further east, the cheaper the train tickets should be. The only catch: the offer is also getting worse. Trains run less frequently, there are fewer connections, the trains are longer on the road. Overall, only half of the routes examined offer good train connections.
Travelers prefer to board the plane on the Amsterdam-London, London-Edinburgh and Toulouse-Paris routes. Train journeys on these routes would only take around four hours, but air fares beat rail fares. One reason: the more railway companies are used on a trip, the more expensive the trip. Night trains are often cheaper than day trips. However, they do not undercut the prices of the flight providers.
Incidentally, travelers fly the cheapest route Bratislava-Zagreb. According to Greenpeace, you can travel there for just under ten euros.
According to the study, 79 percent of the routes examined are served by low-cost airlines such as Easyjet or Ryanair. The cheapest travel option according to Greenpeace: transit flights. However, they are also the most harmful to the climate. According to Greenpeace, they cause ten times as many emissions as direct flights.
And what about routes to and from Germany? Train tickets are cheaper here than in most neighboring European countries. On the one hand, German airports are not yet dominated by low-cost airlines as much as in Italy, Spain or Great Britain. Germany also charges a much higher VAT on domestic flights than other countries. A train journey from Berlin to almost all European capitals is worthwhile.
But the ticket prices also depend on the destination. A flight ticket is worthwhile for trips to Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Scandinavia and France or from there to Germany. On short routes like Warsaw-Berlin or Berlin-Prague, train tickets are the cheaper option. The same applies to trips to Switzerland.
Most of the direct train connections in Germany are on the Hamburg-Munich route. Greenpeace counts 45 train pairs per day there. Passengers travel by rail for almost six hours and pay half the price of the plane.
There are 13 direct train connections per day between Stuttgart and Berlin. According to Greenpeace, whether the train is cheaper than the plane depends on the day of the booking. But: The earlier you book, the cheaper the ticket. Train tickets cost between 20 and 104 euros.
There are no direct flights on the Berlin-Prague route, but there are six direct train connections per day. The train journey takes more than four hours, and train tickets cost between 29 and 70 euros. You can only fly via Düsseldorf or Warsaw, from 130 euros.
There are five direct train connections per day on the Zurich-Berlin route. With a price of at least 50 euros, the train should be cheaper than the plane. Travelers are also on the road for around eight hours.
Passengers traveling from Brussels to Hamburg pay between 30 and 180 euros. A flight costs between 63 and 273 euros, but according to Greenpeace, the train is said to have been cheaper on all the days examined.
According to Greenpeace, there is still no direct train connection on the Paris-Berlin route. If you book by train at short notice, you pay at least 170 euros. If you book early, you can travel for less than 80 euros. Flights are cheaper on average, trains are said to be at least twice as expensive. Greenpeace only found one flight that cost over 100 euros.
Those traveling on the Cologne-Salzburg route are also the cheapest to travel by plane. Flight tickets cost 60 euros and up, with train tickets passengers are included from 155 euros.
According to Greenpeace, a train journey between Vienna and Berlin is a bit complicated. There are only two direct train connections, passengers have to change frequently. The price is only between 29 and 62 euros and is therefore always cheaper than the plane.
Different on the Berlin-London route. A trip by plane is a good idea here. Train journeys are not only complicated because of the changes, but also at least twice as expensive.
The same applies to trips between Rome and Berlin and Berlin and Amsterdam. When traveling to the Netherlands, the train is on average 38 percent more expensive than a flight. The cheapest flight ticket costs 39 euros.
