Seems like an additional tax on flights where a train is available would be a more sensible measure; especially if the tax revenue were earmarked for climate change mitigation.
France to ban some domestic flights where train available due to climate measure
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Re: France to ban some domestic flights where train available due to climate measure
#12The benefit is transfers. Walking down the terminal without luggage to another gate vs leaving the airport with luggage and getting on a train. Especially if it's the difference between going through the baggage claims area in a major international airport (usually the transfer point) and a small regional one (usually final destination). Plus if you're driving home, train stations are usually in city centre (expensiv…
Is there a barrier to integrating the rail network with the airports for seamless transfers? I've long thought how nice it would be to fly from London to Oakland, then get straight on Amtrak to Sacramento. I do this already but baggage can be annoying.
At least in Germany this is done in some places. I often buy flights out of Frankfurt since the ICE train goes stops in the airport.
Re: France to ban some domestic flights where train available due to climate measure
#13What was the benefit of these flights anyways when you have a good rail and highway system? I see that pre 9/11 security was fast and easy but now just the worst case security checkup time makes me shrug at short-distance flights.
I know one such — the connection between Munich and Nuremberg, which is half an hour by plane (airport to airport) and an hour and a half by train (from railway station to railway station). Most air passsengers were transit passengers. If you wanted to go from Nuremberg to Madrid, say, then flying via the hub in Munich made sense, and the train wasn't much of a competitor for that case. The train is good if you want…
Lufthansa at least has Rail & Fly where for €60 return you can add a DB train ticket to the flight. The ticket gets you from anywhere to the airport and back. Since the train and flight are booked on the same ticket, if there is a train delay (or flight delay returning) you will get rebooked on the next flight as if you had taken a flight. It's pretty great, I would recommend it.
Re: France to ban some domestic flights where train available due to climate measure
#14What was the benefit of these flights anyways when you have a good rail and highway system? I see that pre 9/11 security was fast and easy but now just the worst case security checkup time makes me shrug at short-distance flights.
Connecting to international flights at CDG is the most common example. These are still allowed BTW.
Re: France to ban some domestic flights where train available due to climate measure
#15The benefit is transfers. Walking down the terminal without luggage to another gate vs leaving the airport with luggage and getting on a train. Especially if it's the difference between going through the baggage claims area in a major international airport (usually the transfer point) and a small regional one (usually final destination). Plus if you're driving home, train stations are usually in city centre (expensiv…
Is there a barrier to integrating the rail network with the airports for seamless transfers? I've long thought how nice it would be to fly from London to Oakland, then get straight on Amtrak to Sacramento. I do this already but baggage can be annoying.
On Amsterdam Schiphol Airport the transfer to train is probably quicker than to another plane _if_ you only have carry-on bags. I've seen quite a few other international airports like this, maybe it's the density of Europe that promotes this kind of layout?
Baggage is an issue for sure. I've long felt that the baggage belts system provides a great generic (flexible) solution but blocks a lot of ideas that require tighter integration.
Anything that replaces it would be orders of magnitude more complex and fragile. We'll probably have belts for quite a while.
Re: France to ban some domestic flights where train available due to climate measure
#16Seems like an additional tax on flights where a train is available would be a more sensible measure; especially if the tax revenue were earmarked for climate change mitigation.
If the problem is that the full social cost of burning fuel is not captured by the price, then tax the fuel itself. No-brainer.
Re: France to ban some domestic flights where train available due to climate measure
#17The benefit is transfers. Walking down the terminal without luggage to another gate vs leaving the airport with luggage and getting on a train. Especially if it's the difference between going through the baggage claims area in a major international airport (usually the transfer point) and a small regional one (usually final destination). Plus if you're driving home, train stations are usually in city centre (expensiv…
Is there a barrier to integrating the rail network with the airports for seamless transfers? I've long thought how nice it would be to fly from London to Oakland, then get straight on Amtrak to Sacramento. I do this already but baggage can be annoying.
In the case of France, there are some low hanging fruits. The two main airports in Paris, which are also the country's main hubs, are connected to the train network. But to transfer from most of Paris's train stations to the airport train, you have to navigate a maze of tunnels and staircases, and bus and metro lines. I would seriously have to think about how to transfer from Montparnasse to CDG, and I've lived there. Having better, clearer connections between the main train stations in Paris would benefit all train travelers, not just those going to the airports.
There is a planned dedicated express train from Gare de l'Est to one of the airports: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDG_Express
Re: France to ban some domestic flights where train available due to climate measure
#18Seems like an additional tax on flights where a train is available would be a more sensible measure; especially if the tax revenue were earmarked for climate change mitigation.
If the problem is that the full social cost of burning fuel is not captured by the price, then tax the fuel itself. No-brainer.
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Re: France to ban some domestic flights where train available due to climate measure
#19What was the benefit of these flights anyways when you have a good rail and highway system? I see that pre 9/11 security was fast and easy but now just the worst case security checkup time makes me shrug at short-distance flights.
The french greens appear to be objecting to the changes in the measure since its proposal for this reason. From the article, the original proposal was four hours and by reducing into 2.5 hours you've got out a lot of flights which people would seriously consider taking rather than going by rail. Even as someone who happily shows up for European flights with 40 minutes to go, if I could take a train rather than go through airport security for a trip under 2.5 hours I think I'd rather take the train.
Re: France to ban some domestic flights where train available due to climate measure
#20Seems like an additional tax on flights where a train is available would be a more sensible measure; especially if the tax revenue were earmarked for climate change mitigation.
If the problem is that the full social cost of burning fuel is not captured by the price, then tax the fuel itself. No-brainer.
There's an upper limit to how much you can influence using that lever, at which point it's cheaper for them to just overfill the planes and make a border hop to another country without similar fuel taxes. I don't believe any country charges import tax on fuel already in vehicle fuel tanks.