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French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights

reuters.com

11–20 of 361 posts

Re: French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights

#11

Maybe they should ask themselves _why_ someone would take a flight instead of a 2.5 hour train ride? There's really no reason a human would try to fly instead of take a train, if the trains were functioning at high efficiency. Flying sucks. And yet...

It's not always a rational choice. Among other things, there's some social status associated to flying compared to taking a train. So the professionals tend to take the plane even when it's neither cheaper, nor faster, nor more reliable.

Re: French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights

#12
I'm not an economist, but wouldn't it have been better to tax the carbon emissions?

If you could offset the carbon emissions for 10 EUR, maybe add 12 EUR to the price of a ticket and use that money to buy carbon offsets? That way those who still want it can still fly, and we're at net negative emissions.

Re: French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights

#13
post #10

Maybe they should ask themselves _why_ someone would take a flight instead of a 2.5 hour train ride? There's really no reason a human would try to fly instead of take a train, if the trains were functioning at high efficiency. Flying sucks. And yet...

France has one of the best and fastest train systems in the world. There's really no reason for people to fly, but they still do.

Clearly there's a reason if they're doing it! People are asking what that reason is.

Re: French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights

#15

Maybe they should ask themselves _why_ someone would take a flight instead of a 2.5 hour train ride? There's really no reason a human would try to fly instead of take a train, if the trains were functioning at high efficiency. Flying sucks. And yet...

In France, it mostly comes down to a price issue. On one hand, flights are massively subsidized and can be extremely cheap. On the other hand, train is not subsidized at all and can be pretty pricey.

Recently though, things are changing and making a Paris - Nice by train is becoming somewhat financially doable.

Re: French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights

#16

There is no reason to fly short distance if you want to go from city center to city center. However, if you're already arriving or leaving on a long distance flight, the whole overhead of getting to/from/through the airport disappears and those 1.5 hours start making a difference. I think forcing companies to advertise more honest flight durations and prices could make a huge difference. If the airline tells you that…

If you use Google Flights, you can specify the number carry-on/checked bags you want and Google will include the pricing info in its rankings of flights which is handy.

I don't agree that airlines (or really any travel provider) should be required to include travel time to/from city centers though because not everyone is going to go into city centers. However, that'd be an interesting feature to implement: a feature that lets users specify their actual destination to get a fuller picture of travel time.

Re: French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights

#17

There is no reason to fly short distance if you want to go from city center to city center. However, if you're already arriving or leaving on a long distance flight, the whole overhead of getting to/from/through the airport disappears and those 1.5 hours start making a difference. I think forcing companies to advertise more honest flight durations and prices could make a huge difference. If the airline tells you that…

And flights costing 29 EUR are simply a market (and policy) failure. In no reasonable sustainably operating economy would we ever have gotten into a situation of flights being cheaper than train trips.

Re: French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights

#18

There is no reason to fly short distance if you want to go from city center to city center. However, if you're already arriving or leaving on a long distance flight, the whole overhead of getting to/from/through the airport disappears and those 1.5 hours start making a difference. I think forcing companies to advertise more honest flight durations and prices could make a huge difference. If the airline tells you that…

I largely agree.

One issue with France is that their train system is very Paris-centric. Want to go from the Rennes northwest to the Toulouse in the southwest? Yeah, you’re going to go through Paris in the centre of the country.

Same with Bordeaux to Lyon. Takes about the same time driving as high-speed rail takes a horseshoe route.

Re: French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights

#19
post #10

Maybe they should ask themselves _why_ someone would take a flight instead of a 2.5 hour train ride? There's really no reason a human would try to fly instead of take a train, if the trains were functioning at high efficiency. Flying sucks. And yet...

France has one of the best and fastest train systems in the world. There's really no reason for people to fly, but they still do.

Assuming the train workers aren’t on strike, as they are wont to do at least once per year.

Re: French lawmakers approve a ban on short domestic flights

#20
post #10

Maybe they should ask themselves _why_ someone would take a flight instead of a 2.5 hour train ride? There's really no reason a human would try to fly instead of take a train, if the trains were functioning at high efficiency. Flying sucks. And yet...

France has one of the best and fastest train systems in the world. There's really no reason for people to fly, but they still do.

No it does not.if it is faster to fly most people will choose to fly.
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