Environment

3917 readers

26 users here now

Environmental and ecological discussion, particularly of things like weather and other natural phenomena (especially if they're not breaking news).

See also our Nature and Gardening community for discussion centered around things like hiking, animals in their natural habitat, and gardening (urban or rural).

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Why are flights cheaper than trains in Europe? (www.euronews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

2 comments fedilink hide all child comments

One of the main reasons for the disparity is the lower taxes that the aviation industry benefits from.

If you fly from Paris to Barcelona the airline not only pays no VAT, but is also exempt from kerosene tax. If you make the same journey by train, the rail company will pay an energy tax and passenger VAT. This means higher costs for the company which are usually reflected in ticket prices.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/7Zrur

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Is it really that surprising that planes are cheaper than trains ? Rails require massive investments and upkeep cost. It's also much more difficult to run different operators on the infrastructure so there is very little competition. Not sure a tax is going to change any of that.