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France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel

euronews.com

141–149 of 149 posts

Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel

#141
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not. Flying all those people on smaller planes would use far more fuel and cause more pollution.

Not flying would be best :)

That's not feasible. You can't cross oceans in any reasonable timeframe without an airplane. Even long land trips don't really make sense by train, over I'm guessing 1000km.

My whole point here was to devise a taxation strategy to discourage passengers and airlines from flying short routes, and leave those to trains instead, reserving airplanes for the much longer routes where they're much less avoidable, and also to encourage more centralization of air travel from large cities and their airports, so that larger numbers of passengers are funneled onto a smaller number of very large jets for those intercontinental trips. Passengers would then just have to take trains to/from the smaller cities. Larger planes are far more efficient in terms of fuel per passenger per mile; much of the fuel burned in a flight is used on take-off and getting to altitude anyway, so maximizing distance and plane size means minimizing fuel per passenger-mile.

Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel

#142
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not flying would be best :)

That's not feasible. You can't cross oceans in any reasonable timeframe without an airplane. Even long land trips don't really make sense by train, over I'm guessing 1000km. My whole point here was to devise a taxation strategy to discourage passengers and airlines from flying short routes, and leave those to trains instead, reserving airplanes for the much longer routes where they're much less avoidable, and also to…

Well, then don't cross oceans then. Travel long distances rarely. It's not a human right to get cheaply to the other side of the globe. And with recent breakthroughs in electronic communications, we don't have much need for vast majority of travelling. Close-but-living-far-away relatives dying or getting married happens only so rarely.

If we want to fight pollution big time, ultimately we have to reduce amount of traveling. At least till we get nuclear fission working and batteries with good energy density. Entirely new ways to make trains and planes themselves.

Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel

#143
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not feasible. You can't cross oceans in any reasonable timeframe without an airplane. Even long land trips don't really make sense by train, over I'm guessing 1000km. My whole point here was to devise a taxation strategy to discourage passengers and airlines from flying short routes, and leave those to trains instead, reserving airplanes for the much longer routes where they're much less avoidable, and also to…

Well, then don't cross oceans then. Travel long distances rarely. It's not a human right to get cheaply to the other side of the globe. And with recent breakthroughs in electronic communications, we don't have much need for vast majority of travelling. Close-but-living-far-away relatives dying or getting married happens only so rarely. If we want to fight pollution big time, ultimately we have to reduce amount of tra…

Sure, we'll just all go back to medieval ways of living! That sounds like a great idea! Why travel when you can just stay at home and play video games all day!

Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel

#144
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, then don't cross oceans then. Travel long distances rarely. It's not a human right to get cheaply to the other side of the globe. And with recent breakthroughs in electronic communications, we don't have much need for vast majority of travelling. Close-but-living-far-away relatives dying or getting married happens only so rarely. If we want to fight pollution big time, ultimately we have to reduce amount of tra…

Sure, we'll just all go back to medieval ways of living! That sounds like a great idea! Why travel when you can just stay at home and play video games all day!

Medieval way of living with internet and video calling? Sorry, this doesn't seem like medieval at all.

You know there's lots of things to do outside without flying tens of thousands kilometers, right?

Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It costs me around 60€ to go from France to Switzerland by plane. It costs me way more than 60€ to go from France to Switzerland by train. This why people are taking the plane, because it's less expensive that high speed rail, nothing more. Make high speed rail less expensive and people will take the train. Government induced free market distortion under pretense of ecology concerns is just what it is, bullshit, and…

Just taking a simple example like Lausanne (Switzerland) to Paris (France)¹ shows comparable ticket prices. For an arbitrary date a few months away like April 21st, that gives me a single train ticket for €65 on a direct connection to Gare du Nord, or a train ride to Genève-Aéroport (€8) plus a plane ticket for around €65 to Orly. Cheaper plane tickets exist, but not if you have even a single backpack. In terms of ti…

I took the train (TGV) from Lausanne to Nantes once, the hardest part was the train station transfer via bus in Paris.

Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel

#146
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It costs me around 60€ to go from France to Switzerland by plane. It costs me way more than 60€ to go from France to Switzerland by train. This why people are taking the plane, because it's less expensive that high speed rail, nothing more. Make high speed rail less expensive and people will take the train. Government induced free market distortion under pretense of ecology concerns is just what it is, bullshit, and…

Forgive me, but your comment drops below any reasonable threshold of HN guidelines and I am forced to use strong language like “absurd” and “clownish” to describe what you’re asserting … The overriding market distortion, which trumps every other variable here , is the zero value given to any environmental externalities coming from air travel. In addition, both CH and FR have massive governmental subsidies for their n…

FR and Air France maybe, but Swiss Air is now owned by Lufthansa.

Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel

#147
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It costs me around 60€ to go from France to Switzerland by plane. It costs me way more than 60€ to go from France to Switzerland by train. This why people are taking the plane, because it's less expensive that high speed rail, nothing more. Make high speed rail less expensive and people will take the train. Government induced free market distortion under pretense of ecology concerns is just what it is, bullshit, and…

What does France to Switzerland even mean? They border each other. You could walk.

You can cross the border by foot in the Geneva airport, or used to be able to before Switzerland was part of the Schengen.

Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel

#148
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, we'll just all go back to medieval ways of living! That sounds like a great idea! Why travel when you can just stay at home and play video games all day!

Medieval way of living with internet and video calling? Sorry, this doesn't seem like medieval at all. You know there's lots of things to do outside without flying tens of thousands kilometers, right?

If you want to just stay at home all the time, feel free.

Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel

#149
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medieval way of living with internet and video calling? Sorry, this doesn't seem like medieval at all. You know there's lots of things to do outside without flying tens of thousands kilometers, right?

If you want to just stay at home all the time, feel free.

Not flying long distance does not mean staying home. Unless you live on a 500m radius island in the middle of an ocean with next land mass thousands of kilometers away.
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