Greenpeace is calling for more investment in European railways to create more direct rail routes and encourage people to fly less.
According to a new analysis by Greenpeace, there are six times more direct air connections between European cities than direct rail connections. In several large European cities there are no direct trains to any of the other cities included in the study.
The activists They analyzed 990 routes between 45 large European cities and discovered that 114 routes (12%) have direct train connections. There are another 305 routes (31%) in which a direct connection would be possible using existing tracks, but the route is not currently used.
On the other hand, 69% of the 990 routes They have direct flights. Greenpeace claims this encourages people to fly instead of taking the train. “For years, Europe has rolled out the red carpet to air Transportharmful to the climate, and has showered it with tax exemptions, while trains and railway infrastructure they have been withering“says Herwig Schuster, Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe transport campaign manager.
Where in Europe is it easiest to take a direct train?
Greenpeace claims that none of the cities analyzed take full advantage of your potential of direct connections by train.
one, with 17 direct connections, is the city with the most direct connections. Munich is in second place, with 15 connections, and Berlin, Zurich and Paris complete the top five with 13 connections each.
At the other end of the scale There are six cities that do not have direct connections by train with none of the other cities analyzed: Athens, Lisbon, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje and Tallinn.
How to improve European railways?
In an interview with ‘Euronews’ last month, Alberto Mazzola, executive director of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), an advocacy group that represents European railway companiesstressed the importance of the duration of the trip for passengers.
“If the trip lasts 18 hours, very few will take the train although we can sell the ticket,” he says. “To solve this problem, we would like to connect all the capitals and large European cities with high speed trains“, Add.
Mazzola is a member of the EU to allocate more funds to infrastructures that allow these connections to be created. According to a European Commission report, the total number of cross-border long-distance passenger services in the EU remained unchanged between 2001 and 2019and together they only represent around 7% of train journeys in Europe.
Meanwhile, the total number of night trains Passenger traffic in Europe fell from 1,257 per week in 2001 to 445 in 2019, although there have been some lines reintroduced since 2019, such as Brussels-Prague.
To boost these numbers and encourage more people to take the train, Greenpeace is calling on national governments and the EU that support the development of railway services through investment in infrastructure, better cooperation between railway companies and making direct trains mandatory in places where they are not yet commercially viable.
“It is time for European governments and the EU correct this historical imbalance” says Schuster. “Europeans deserve access to clean public transportefficient, comfortable and affordable that is good for them and good for the planet.
