Bijlage 1.Report trains final OCBT

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

Report by OBC Transeuropa for Greenpeace 27 October 2021

Authors

Lorenzo Ferrari and Gianluca De Feo

Copyright and terms of use

The current study was carried out by OBC Transeuropa for Greenpeace and it should be referred to in this way.

The report is released under a Creative Commons Attibution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0), so it can freely be shared and reused, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors. Any changes must be indicated.

Contact for enquiries and corrections: info@balcanicaucaso.org

About OBC Transeuropa

OBC Transeuropa (www.balcanicaucaso.org) is a think tank based in Trento (Italy), hosted by the Centro per la Cooperazione Internazionale. Since 2000, OBC Transeuropa reports about and studies European issues, paying special attention to South-East Europe, social and environmental issues, fundamental rights, media freedom, and data journalism. To this end, it combines online journalism, research, training, advocacy, and policy advice through a multi-lingual and transnational approach.

OBC Transeuropa • vicolo San Marco, 1 • 38121 Trento (Italy)

Table of contents

Methodology

p.

4

PART I – Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

p.

7

Overview on the main findings

p.

8

Key rail corridors

p.

Train alternatives for the top-150 intra-EU routes Train alternatives for the top-250 European routes

Room for improvement of train services on popular routes Train alternatives to short-haul flights in 2021

Routes where trains already offer an alternative PART II – National factsheets

p.

14

p.

21

p. p. p.

20 25 28 32

p.

34

France

p.

35

Italy

p.

43

Germany

Spain

Austria Belgium The Netherlands

ANNEX

p. p. p. p. p. p.

39 47 51 54 57 60

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Methodology Analysis of air traffic (Greenpeace) In order to assess train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe, the starting point was an analysis of Eurostat’s “air transport measurement passengers” database (avia_par), in order to identify and rank flight routes based on the volume of traffic. The yearly data for 2019 was considered, as it is the latest available data prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted air traffic.

In the analysis, Greenpeace only focused on flight routes of less than 1500 km; GIS software was used to measure the radial distance between city centers. The data covers intra-EU flights as well as the flights connecting the EU with the other European countries included in the database, such as Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Routes that connect the mainland to islands where no rail tunnel, bridge or train ferry exist were excluded, since there is no train alternative there.1 The Eurostat database does not differentiate connecting flights, so data on air passengers travelling between two cities also includes travellers who flew to a given airport in order to board another flight from there. Large urban areas sometimes have multiple airports. Data on passenger traffic for airports referring to the same city was merged. This was the case for: Berlin (Tegel, Schönefeld); Brussels (Charleroi, Brussels City); Frankfurt (Hahn, Main); London (London City, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, Stansted); Milan (Malpensa, Linate, Bergamo); Paris (Beauvais, Orly, Charles de Gaulle); Rome (Ciampino, Fiumicino); Stockholm (Bromma, Arlanda); Venice (Marco Polo, Treviso); Warsaw (Chopin, Modlin).

Analysis of train routes (OBC Transeuropa) Based on the data on air traffic generated by Greenpeace, we identified 13 lists of routes for the analysis of train services on them. These lists include: •

the top-150 busiest intra-EU routes in terms of air passenger traffic

•

the top 40 busiest intra-EU routes for France, Germany, Italy, Spain

• the top-250 busiest European routes (EU + Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Switzerland, Norway, and the United Kingdom) •

the top 40 busiest domestic routes for France, Germany, Italy, Spain

• the top 30 busiest intra-EU routes for Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands

Where we refer to “Europe” or “European routes” in this analysis, we refer to all the countries covered by the Eurostat database except for Turkey, that is to say all EU countries plus Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Switzerland, Norway, and the United Kingdom. None of the routes involving Montenegro, North Macedonia or Serbia makes it to the list of the top-250 busiest routes in Europe, in any case. Dedicated national datasets and factsheets were prepared for the following countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. Overall, 331 intra-EU routes are included in the database, along with 95 additional routes that cover flights within the UK, Switzerland and Norway, or flights connecting those countries with each other or with EU countries. In total, the database includes 426 distinct routes in total, covering 76 routes involving French airports, 95 routes involving German airports, 79 1 Passenger traffic on some of these flight routes is very intense however.

4

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

routes involving Italian airports, 72 routes involving Spanish airports, 30 routes involving Belgian airports, 31 routes involving Dutch airports, and 33 routes involving Austrian airports.

For each route, we considered whether it could be travelled by train and we analysed the corresponding train service. Most data on train services also refers to 2019, both for consistency with the flight data and because many train services were suspended in 2020-21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As train services vary based on the weekday and on the period of the year, we analysed train services on Wednesday 2 October 2019, which was deemed a standard day for being a midweek day in a period not affected by holidays or festivities.2 The source of the data was the European Rail Timetable (summer 2019 edition). We calculated the travel time of each route in 2021 as well, taking Wednesday 6 October 2021 as a reference day. Updated information on current services and on the impact of Covid19-related suspensions could be gathered in this way. For each route that could be travelled by train, we calculated a standard duration of the journey. Durations depend on specific trains or train combinations. Both for the sake of comparability and due to time constraints, for 2019 data we looked at the combination ensuring the earliest possible arrival at the target destination, provided that the departure takes place after 7am (local time). In cases when train B departed later than train A but arrived at the same time or even earlier, we privileged the travel time of train B.

Due to greater access to information, the analysis of train services in 2021 adopted a partly different approach compared to 2019, so the results of the two analyses are not directly comparable with each other. Data for 2021 looks at the duration of the quickest possible train connection between the two cities, expanding the window for morning departures to 5am to 10am. When no connection existed within this time frame we also considered later departures.

A complementary analysis of night-train services was made, in order to assess whether it was possible to travel a given route by using a night train, and how long it would take. For this analysis, we only considered night trains offering sleeping wagons, i.e. ordinary trains traveling nighttime were excluded. If connections involving a transfer were faster than direct night trains covering the same route, we collected data about the former. Whenever a transfer was necessary, trains with the shortest possible journey time and the earliest possible arrival at the destination were identified. We did not consider night-train services that involve a stay on board shorter than 6 hours, a departure after 1am, or an arrival before 5am. A night-train option coming in addition to a daytime one on a given route is clearly marked in the database with an “N” letter in the ID; such options were only considered in the current report for the analyses on night-train services. In some cases it proved not to be possible to leave in the morning and reach the target city by the night; it was necessary to sleep in an intermediate city. For these routes, if an alternative involving a night train existed we only retained the night-train option in the database. Data on train services for each route refers to only one direction.

It is assumed that they reflect the state of the services in the opposite direction as well. No specific criterion guided the choice of which of the 2 directions was to be analysed.

Some regional airports serve multiple medium-size cities, such as the Asturias airport, Biarritz-Bayonne, Hyères-Toulon, Leipzig-Halle, MünsterOsnabrück, Paderborn-Lippstadt, and Tarbes-Lourdes. In these cases, train connections leading to any of those cities were considered, based on 2 This choice implies the exclusion of a few train services, such as the Paris-Moscow direct train, which runs only once a week.

5

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

the earliest possible time of arrival; the considered city is specified in the notes of the dataset.

The following information is available for every route in the database: type of connection (domestic/international, intra-EU or not); connected countries; no. of air passengers; city of origin and destination; cities where a train transfer is needed; no. of transfers; involvement of a night train in the journey or not; time of departure, time of arrival, and duration of the journey. Additional information is available for a selection of routes, such as rail distance; average speed of the journey; no. of weekly direct connections; duration of the journey in 2021.

National factsheets focus on Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. For the biggest countries, a double analysis was performed: on one hand, the top 40 intra-EU routes departing from or arriving at cities in that country were considered, while on the other hand a separate analysis was made for the top 40 domestic routes. For Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands, the analysis looked at the top 30 intra-EU routes departing from or arriving at their cities; the top 4 domestic routes were also considered for Austria.

6

PART I Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Overview on the main findings 31% of the top 150 intra-EU short-haul flight routes that have a train alternative in principle could be travelled by train in less than 6 hours in 2019. The same went for 29% of the top-250 European routes. The share of routes that can be travelled by train in less than 6 hours in 2021 is 34% for the top-150 list and 29% for the top-250 list.3 The proportion of short-haul flight routes coming with a train alternative under 6 hours is even higher for the most popular routes in France and Germany, while it is significantly lower for all the other focus countries of this report, with the top intra-EU routes for Italy and Austria performing particularly poorly in terms of duration. 49% of the top 150 intra-EU short-haul flight routes that have a train alternative in principle could either be travelled in 2019 with a train journey taking less than 6 hours in total, with a direct night train, or with a journey involving a night train and taking less than 12 hours in total. This also applied to 43% of the top-250 European short-haul flight routes. This share was also around 50% for the top 40 intra-EU routes for France, Germany and Italy in 2019, while it was even higher for Austria. To the contrary, 70% or more of the top 30 intra-EU routes for Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain involved slower or less convenient journeys.

The same patterns can be observed for 2021.

Night trains (either direct or connecting ones) are available for journeys on the majority of the routes in the top-150 and top-250 lists as well as on the top routes for each of the focus countries, except for the Netherlands and France. They were available in 2019 on 81% of the top 150 intra-EU routes where there was no daytime train option lasting less than 6 hours, with an extremely high coverage for Italy in particular. However, the coverage of direct night trains was very low and surpassed 50% of served routes only in Austria and Italy. It is also worth noting that almost a third of the top routes for Spain required boarding at least 1 night train in 2019, as those routes could not be travelled within a day by daytime trains only. Night-train services for most of the top routes for Belgium, France, Italy and Spain rely on just a handful of trains. All the international intra-EU routes for Spain coming with a night-train option relied on the operation of just two night trains in 2019, namely Hendaye-Lisbon and Paris-Portbou. Most of the 17 routes above 6 hours coming with a night-train option for France relied on the operation of just two trains, Paris-Venice and ParisPortbou; also the night-train connections for Belgium relied almost entirely on those two trains.

Similarly, almost all night-train options for international intra-EU routes above 6h for Italy depended on just a couple of trains, Milan/Venice-Munich and Venice-Paris. Despite their importance, most of these night-train services were suppressed or limited after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and are no longer operating. A third of the top-150 intra-EU routes that we analysed were covered by direct trains in 2019,4 while only 16% of them required 3 or more transfers. Germany and France presented the highest share of direct trains among their most popular routes. In Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain 3 or more transfers were necessary in order to travel about one third of the routes. Among the focus countries, France, Spain and Belgium were the countries where the average speed of journeys on the top routes was the highest in 2019, while Austria and the Netherlands presented the lowest values.

3 The analysis of train services in 2021 adopted a partly different approach compared to 2019, so the results of the two analyses are not directly comparable with each other (see the Methodology for more details). 4 Direct trains are available for a greater share of routes in fact, since whenever a connecting train was faster than a direct train on a given route we privileged the former.

8

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

In general terms, the situation of train services in Europe in 2021 is worse than in 2019, mostly because of the cancellation of some key services in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Hendaye-Lisbon and Venice-Paris night trains were cancelled, while the Paris-Portbou night train was reduced. Daytime connections operated by Eurostar and on the Barcelona-Paris route have been cut, and all train services between Sweden and Norway have been replaced by buses. On a positive note, 4 new night-train services have been introduced on the routes analysed (Paris-Marseille-Nice, Stockholm-Berlin, Vienna/Munich-Amsterdam and Vienna-Brussels).

Chart 1. Average journey duration, route length and speed in 2019 per lists of train routes (intra-EU routes only, according to the methodology used for 2019 data).

Set of routes Top-150 intra-EU routes France (intra-EU routes)

Average duration of the train journey (2019)

Average length of the train routes (km) (2019)

Average speed of the train journey (km/h) (2019)

8h02

1096

150

10h57

Germany (intra-EU routes)

10h08

Spain (intra-EU routes)

13h01

Italy (intra-EU routes)

Austria (intra-EU routes)

Belgium (intra-EU routes)

Netherlands (intra-EU routes)

11h53 10h38 10h39 12h18

1175 1102 1285 1564

916

1258 1239

Table 1. Average journey duration, route length and speed per lists of train routes, according to the methodology used for 2019 data.

9

123 120 115 131 100 129 112

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Chart 2. Percentage of routes by duration of the train journey in 2019, per list of routes, according to the methodology used for 2019 data.

Set of routes Top-150 intra-EU routes

Top-250 European routes France (intra-EU routes)

Germany (intra-EU routes) Italy (intra-EU routes)

Spain (intra-EU routes)

Austria (intra-EU routes)

Belgium (intra-EU routes)

Netherlands (intra-EU routes)

<4 hours (2019)

4-6 hours (2019)

6-8 hours (2019)

8-16 hours (2019)

> 16 hours (2019)

Cannot be travelled by train (2019)

10%

19%

14%

37%

17%

2%

11%

20%

17.5%

27.5%

5%

10%

15%

5% 3%

10% 10%

13%

42.5%

7.5%

62.5%

12.5%

43%

17%

17.5%

15%

12.5%

10%

13%

17%

20% 10%

32.5% 42.5%

53% 47%

Table 2. Percentage of routes by duration of the train journey, per list of routes, according to the methodology used for 2019 data.

10

13%

7.5%

17.5%

13%

41%

5%

2% 0%

15%

2.5%

25%

0%

13% 17%

2.5%

3% 0% 3%

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Routes served in less than 6h (2019)

Routes served by a direct night train (2019)

Top-150 intra-EU routes

31%

25%

France (intra-EU routes)

47.5%

7.5%

Italy (intra-EU routes)

15%

Set of routes

Top-250 European routes Germany (intra-EU routes) Spain (intra-EU routes)

Austria (intra-EU routes)

Belgium (intra-EU routes)

Netherlands (intra-EU routes)

29%

Routes served by a night-train option under 12h (2019)

17%

22% 15%

30%

52.5%

40%

33%

27.5%

20%

7.5%

10%

20%

3%

23%

53%

3%

Table 3. Percentage of routes where trains are already quite competitive, according to the methodology used for 2019. Routes may fall into multiple categories, so the total is higher than 100%. For more details see the Annex.

11

57%

47.5%

27.5%

20%

51%

5%

32.5%

45%

Routes that fall in none of these categories (2019)

3% 0%

50% 70% 73% 73%

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Chart 3. Night-train coverage in 2019, per list of routes. The chart only refers to routes where there was no daytime-train option less than 6 hours long, according to the methodology used for 2019. Boarding one or more night trains is… Set of routes

Top-150 intra-EU routes

Top-250 European routes France (intra-EU routes)

Necessary (2019)

Optional (2019)

22%

48%

21% 9%

Germany (intra-EU routes)

30%

Spain (intra-EU routes)

34%

Italy (intra-EU routes)

Austria (intra-EU routes)

Belgium (intra-EU routes)

Netherlands (intra-EU routes)

15% 17% 13%

9%

60% 68% 35% 85% 56%

19% 30%

23% 35%

0% 9%

67%

17%

55%

36%

54%

Table 4. Night-train coverage, per list of routes. The table only refers to routes where there was no daytime-train option less than 6 hours long, according to the methodology used for 2019.

12

Not possible (2019)

33%

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Chart 4. Percentage of routes by no. of required transfers in 2019, per list of routes, according to the methodology used for 2019.

Set of routes

Direct train (2019)

Top-150 intra-EU routes

32%

France (intra-EU routes)

40%

Top-250 European routes Germany (intra-EU routes) Italy (intra-EU routes)

Spain (intra-EU routes)

Austria (intra-EU routes)

Belgium (intra-EU routes)

Netherlands (intra-EU routes)

27%

43% 18% 18% 20% 10% 13%

1-2 transfers (2019)

50% 51%

58% 48%

16% 20%

3% 8%

65%

15%

60%

17%

50% 63% 57%

Table 5. Percentage of routes by no. of required transfers, per list of routes, according to the methodology used for 2019.

13

3 or more transfers (2019)

33% 27% 27%

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Train alternatives for the top 150 intra-EU routes5 Out of the top-150 intra-EU short-haul flight routes where a train connection could in principle be available, 147 could actually be travelled by train in 2019. The only exceptions were the routes to Greece, as there was no operating train connection to the country in the covered period (a bus transfer was necessary both on the Novi Sad-Belgrade stretch and across the Bulgarian-Greek border).

The average duration of the train journey was 10h57 in 2019,6 ranging from 2h03 for the Paris-Lyon journey to 60h11 for Helsinki-Stockholm. The median was 10h46. The average length of the train journey for the top-150 intra-EU routes is 1175 km, ranging from 337 km for the Lisbon-Porto journey to 4232 km for Helsinki-Stockholm. The median is 1059 km.

Chart 5. Top-150 intra-EU routes by range of duration of the train journey in 2019, according to the methodology used for 2019 data.

5 The list of top-150 intra-EU routes largely coincides with the list of the 146 intra-EU routes where flights carry more than 500,000 people per year. On top of those, the top-150 list also includes the Barcelona-Granada, Turin-Rome, Brussels-Prague, and Madrid-Düsseldorf routes. Given the extent of the overlap between the two lists, we did not draft a separate report for the intra-EU routes carrying more than 500,000 people per year. 6 Whenever a route comes with a daytime and a night-train alternative, we only take into account the fastest of the two options (which is almost always the daytime option) in order to calculate average values of duration, length and speed. Average values covering journeys that involve night trains are presented in the section which focuses on night trains.

14

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

The average speed of the journey7 for these routes was 123 km/h in 2019, ranging from 55 km/h for the Rome-Bucharest journey to 250 km/h for Paris-Bordeaux. The median was 103 km/h. The average was 142 km/h for daytime direct journeys.

Duration of the journey

No. of routes (2019)

Less than 4 hours

17

4-6 hours

30

6-8 hours

19

8-16 hours

61

More than 16 hours

Cannot be travelled by train Total

Percentage of routes (2019)

20

3

150

11%

Cumulative no. of air passengers for these routes (M, 2019) 20.5

20%

33.2

13%

18.3

41%

58.8

13%

18.5

2%

100%

0.8

151.5

Table 6. Duration of the train journey for the top-150 intra-EU routes, according to the methodology used for 2019. 17 routes could be travelled by train in less than 4 hours in 2019. Except for the Amsterdam-Paris, Brussels-Frankfurt, and Paris-Frankfurt routes, they were all domestic routes. All of them were covered by daytime connections and were direct, except for Hamburg-Düsseldorf. More than 1 million passengers were carried by plane on 11 of these 17 routes in 2019; Madrid-Barcelona, Frankfurt-Berlin, and Munich-Berlin were the most popular routes among them. All these routes featured an average speed higher than the EU average, except for the Lisbon-Porto and Hamburg-Düsseldorf connections, which were slightly below the average. The longest route in this selection is Paris-Montpellier, covering 736 km, while the fastest was Paris-Bordeaux. Route

Duration (2019)

Paris-Lyon

2h03

Paris-Nantes

2h10

Paris-Bordeaux Madrid-Barcelona Lisbon-Porto Rome-Milan

Stockholm-Gothenburg Brussels-Frankfurt Frankfurt-Munich Amsterdam-Paris Paris-Montpellier Paris-Frankfurt

Hamburg-Düsseldorf Frankfurt-Berlin

No. of air passengers (both ways) (2019) 715,117

2h09

1,219,673

2h30

2,572,844

2h59

1,198,119

568,942

2h50

1,008,288

3h02

1,148,015

3h08

578,559

3h14

1,146,439

3h29

989,296

3h23

1,388,051

3h39

1,042,112

3h46

2,248,754

3h41

522,362

7 This indicator does not refer to the average speed of the trains operating the service, but to the average speed of the overall journey, so it also takes into account waiting times for transfers and border crossings.

15

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

Route

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Duration (2019)

No. of air passengers (both ways) (2019)

Frankfurt-Hamburg

3h58

1,426,732

Munich-Berlin

3h59

1,934,712

Rome-Bari

3h59

765,162

Table 7. Routes of the top-150 intra-EU list where the journey takes less than 4 hours, according to the methodology used for 2019. 30 routes could be travelled by train in 4 to 6 hours in 2019. 27 of them were domestic routes, the only exceptions being Amsterdam-Frankfurt, Vienna-Munich, and Stockholm-Copenhagen. All these routes were covered by daytime connections and 21 of them did not involve a transfer. More than 1 million passengers were carried by plane on 13 of these routes in 2019; the selection includes the two most popular intra-EU flying routes (Paris-Toulouse and Paris-Nice).

23 out of these 30 routes featured an average speed equal or higher than the EU average, the most notable exception being the CopenhagenAalborg connection (the average speed was 97 km/h). The longest and fastest route in this selection is Barcelona-Malaga, which covers 1186 km.

Paris-Brest

Route

Amsterdam-Frankfurt Paris-Marseille Paris-Bayonne

Vienna-Munich

Berlin-Düsseldorf Berlin-Cologne

Athina-Thessaloniki Milan-Naples

Stockholm-Malmö Munich-Hannover Turin-Rome

Munich-Cologne Madrid-Oviedo

Copenhagen-Aalborg Lyon-Bordeaux Paris-Toulouse Rome-Brindisi Lyon-Nantes

Madrid-Bilbao

Munich-Düsseldorf Venice-Naples

Stockholm-Copenhagen Barcelona-Malaga Barcelona-Sevilla Helsinki-Oulu

Duration (2019)

No. of air passengers (both ways) (2019)

4h00

562,128

4h05

1,569,716

4h11

535,673

4h05 4h08

882,532 629,775

4h17

1,233,072

4h23

2,621,638

4h20 4h28 4h32 4h35 4h36

1,434,481 1,376,954 1,022,621

542,253 489,190

4h37

1,018,045

4h51

782,849

4h39 4h52

548,209 584,312

4h56

3,221,467

5h03

562,382

4h59 5h04

525,571 835,731

5h05

1,488,902

5h09

1,397,474

5h25

1,045,029

5h06 5h22 5h30

16

535,778 848,962 956,641

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

Route

Hamburg-Stuttgart Madrid-Santiago Berlin-Stuttgart Paris-Nice

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Duration (2019)

No. of air passengers (both ways) (2019)

5h34

738,375

5h40

1,235,068

5h35

719,692

5h59

3,191,073

Table 8. Routes of the top-150 intra-EU list where the journey takes between 4 and 6 hours, according to the methodology used for 2019. 19 routes could be travelled by train in 6 to 8 hours in 2019. They include the busiest international route among the top 150 intra-EU shorthaul flight routes which could in principle be travelled by train, i.e. the Paris-Barcelona route. This and the Barcelona-Granada route are the longest routes in this selection and the only routes whose average speed was significantly above the EU average. A travel option involving night trains was available for 12 of these 19 routes.

Only 9 of the 61 routes that took between 8 and 16 hours were domestic routes (almost exclusively located in Italy). An option involving a night train was available for 47 of these routes; the most significant exceptions were Amsterdam-Copenhagen, Barcelona-Munich and ParisCopenhagen. The average speed for this group of journeys (113 km/h) was slightly below the EU average, with significantly poor performances for the MadridLisbon and Amsterdam-Copenhagen routes. The longest route in this selection is Milan-Madrid, while the fastest was Paris-Madrid. All 20 routes that took more than 16 hours by train involved at least 1 night train, except for the Amsterdam-Stockholm route. More than 1 million passengers were carried by plane on 6 of these 20 routes in 2019; they included the Paris-Lisbon and Paris-Porto routes, as well as the routes connecting Rome with Barcelona or Madrid. 10 of these 20 routes involved up to 2 transfers (with Vienna-Bucharest being the only route where a direct train was available), while 10 routes involved more transfers. As a consequence, the average speed of these journeys was 90 km/h, with lowest figures of between 55 and 57 km/h for Rome-Bucharest, Vienna-Bucharest, and Amsterdam-Helsinki.

Geography plays a major role here, as land connections are longer than 1500 km for 18 such routes and even surpass 3000 km for most routes involving Helsinki and for the Rome-Madrid route. In some of these cases, the most realistic alternative to planes is a combination of ferry and train (e.g. Helsinki-Stockholm). In other cases, major infrastructure investments would be needed (e.g. Helsinki-Tallinn undersea tunnel). No. of transfers

Direct train

No. of routes (2019)

48

1-2 transfers

Percentage of routes (2019)

75

3 or more transfers

24

Cannot be travelled by train

3

Total

150

Table 9. No. of required transfers for the top-150 intra-EU routes, according to the methodology used for 2019. 86% of routes under 3000 km of length that could be travelled by train in 2019 could be travelled with either direct trains or with maximum 2 transfers, some of the most notable exceptions being Amsterdam-Copenhagen

17

32% 50% 16%

2%

100%

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

and Barcelona-Lisbon (4 transfers needed). Journeys involving 3 or more transfers were typically very long both in terms of distance and of duration; the main exceptions were the Madrid-Lisbon and Amsterdam-Copenhagen daytime journeys, which cover a relatively short distance. On average, 1.1 transfers were needed per 1000 km of travel by train in 2019. Direct trains covered on average 648 km. The average length of the route increased to 1063 km for routes that included one transfer, and to 1642 km for routes that included two. The higher the number of transfers, the lower the average speed of the journey – except for night trains, where transfers could actually prove beneficial: this was the case for instance when travelers used a fast train to reach a stop of a night train or to reach their final destination.

Night-train alternatives Boarding one or more night trains is…

Necessary

No. of routes (2019)

Percentage of routes (2019)

80

53%

21

Optional

Not possible, but the route is served by a daytime-train under 6 hours

Not possible, and the route is served by no daytime-train under 6 hours The route cannot be travelled by train

27

18%

19

13%

150

100%

3

Total

Table 10. Night-train coverage of the top-150 intra-EU routes. For 126 of the 150 routes which are included in the dataset, it was possible in 2019 to depart after 7am in the morning and reach the target destination by midnight. This was not possible for 21 other routes, where travelers needed to board 1 or more night trains in order to reach the destination. In 16 of these cases, the journey was more than 1800 km long: these routes were exclusively international intra-EU routes and involved on average 2.9 transfers. In 15 of these 21 routes, the journey took 20 hours or even more.

80 of the 126 routes that could be travelled daytime came with a nighttrain option in 2019. On average, daytime travel took 9h08 on these routes, while nighttime travel took 13h09 hours. The former involved 1.2 transfers on average while the latter involved 0.9 transfers. The average speed of such journeys involving a night train was 84 km/h, while the average speed of daytime journeys was 122 km/h. Night travel always took longer than daytime travel. It was particularly uncompetitive on the Paris-Barcelona route in 2019, since the daytime journey took 6h27 while the nighttime alternative (involving a transfer in Portbou) took 16h05; all train routes passing through this stretch were similarly affected, e.g. Paris-Madrid, Amsterdam-Barcelona.

46 out of the 150 routes included in the dataset had no night-train option in 2019. 23 of them consisted of relatively short domestic routes, covered by relatively fast trains, so that travel time was below 6 hours. On at least some of the other routes, a night-train option would probably be competitive. Except for a handful of domestic routes in Spain, such underserved routes were international ones; the most popular included Amsterdam-Copenhagen, Munich-Paris and Amsterdam-Berlin.

18

14%

2%

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Type of nigh-train option available

No. of routes (2019)

Connecting night train (journey takes < 16h in total)

27

Direct night train

35

Connecting night train (journey takes > 16h in total) Total

Percentage of routes (2019)

27%

39

39%

101

100%

Table 11. Type of night-train services for the top-150 intra-EU routes where this option was available. A direct night train existed on 35 out of the 101 routes in which the night travel option is available in 2019; on average these journeys lasted 10h10 and covered 774 km, reaching a maximum of 1192 kilometers with the Vienna-Hamburg route. On 51 other routes 1 or 2 transfers were required, and even more on 15 other routes.

19

35%

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Key rail corridors Despite the large number of cities crossed or reached by trains providing an alternative to the 150 busiest intra-EU short-haul flight routes, the number of key rail corridors was actually quite limited both in 2019 and in 2021, with the Brussels-Paris-Lyon-Barcelona-Madrid corridor clearly coming out on top. Other very intensively used corridors are Munich-Frankfurt-Düsseldorf and Lyon-Milan-Rome-Naples.

Other rail corridors that play an important role in connecting the large EU countries with each other include Brussels-Cologne-Berlin and Paris-Frankfurt for France and Germany; Paris-Bordeaux-Valladolid for France and Spain; Milan-Munich and Milan-Frankfurt for Italy and Germany. Corridors connecting France with Italy and Germany are also important for train routes linking Spain with those two countries.

In addition to these corridors, other rail stretches that were used by at least 5 of the train routes in the top-150 list in 2019 included Vienna-Munich-Stuttgart and Vienna-Nuremberg; Frankfurt-Berlin and Frankfurt-Hamburg; Berlin-Warsaw; Hamburg-Copenhagen-Stockholm; Madrid-Valladolid; Rome-Naples-Messina. If travelers had to or wanted to use a night train during their journey on the top-150 intra-EU routes, they probably needed to pass through Paris in 2019: in the absence of night trains connecting for instance the South of France to Italy or to Switzerland, Austria or the South of Germany, any journey from Spain or France to Germany or Italy and viceversa involving a night train required to depart from or arrive to Paris. This essentially boiled down to 3 key train stretches in 2019: Paris-Hendaye-Valladolid; Paris-Milan-Venice; and Paris-Toulouse-Portbou. Other key corridors involving night trains include Milan-Rome-Sicily; Venice-Vienna and Venice-Munich; Vienna-Frankfurt; Copenhagen-Stockholm.

The width of each segment is proportional to the no. of train routes passing through it in 2019, based on the top-150 intra-EU list.

20

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Train alternatives for the top-250 European routes Out of the top 250 European short-haul flight routes where a train connection could in principle be available, 244 could actually be travelled by train in 2019. The exceptions were routes to Greece, as there was no operating train connection to the country in the covered period, and some domestic routes in Norway due to the absence of rail connection to some cities.

The average duration of the train journey for the top-250 European routes was 11h20 in 2019, ranging from 2h03 for the Paris-Lyon and Brussels-London journeys to 68h25 for Helsinki-Oslo. The median was 10h41.

Duration of the journey Less than 4 hours 4-6 hours 6-8 hours

No. of routes (2019)

25

Percentage of routes (2019)

10%

48

19%

36

8-16 hours

More than 16 hours

Cannot be travelled by train Total

Cumulative no. of air passengers for these routes (M, 2019)

14%

92

37%

43

17%

6

2%

250

100%

27.0 53.4 37.3 95.1 38.8

4.8

256.4

Table 12. Duration of the train journey for the top-250 European routes, according to the methodology used for 2019. 25 routes could be travelled by train in less than 4 hours in 2019; most of them were domestic routes. They were all covered by daytime connections and none of them involved a transfer, except for the Hamburg-Düsseldorf and London-Cologne routes. The list includes many of the busiest flying routes in Europe; the most popular in this group are Madrid-Barcelona and Frankfurt-Berlin.

Paris-Lyon

Route

Brussels-London

London-Manchester Paris-Bordeaux Paris-Nantes

Madrid-Barcelona Paris-London

Madrid-Seville

Geneva-Zurich Lisbon-Porto Rome-Milan

Stockholm-Gothenburg Paris-Geneva

Duration (2019)

No. of air passengers (both ways) (2019)

2h03

715,117

2h07

552,255

2h03

675,607

2h09

1,219,673

2h30

2,572,844

2h32

486,437

2h10 2h31 2h41

568,942

2,118,570

622,564

2h50

1,008,288

3h02

1,148,015

2h59 3h08

21

1,198,119 1,059,227

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

Route

Brussels-Frankfurt Frankfurt-Munich Amsterdam-Paris Paris-Montpellier Paris-Frankfurt

Hamburg-Düsseldorf Paris-Düsseldorf Frankfurt-Berlin

Frankfurt-Hamburg Rome-Bari

London-Cologne Munich-Berlin

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Duration (2019)

No. of air passengers (both ways) (2019)

3h08

578,559

3h14

1,146,439

3h29

989,296

3h23

1,388,051

3h39

1,042,112

3h45

464,579

3h41

522,362

3h46

2,248,754

3h59

765,162

3h58

1,426,732

3h59

570,463

3h59

1,934,712

Table 13. Routes of the top-250 list where the journey takes less than 4 hours, according to the methodology used for 2019. 48 routes could be travelled by train in 4 to 6 hours in 2019; 32 of them were domestic routes. All these routes were covered by daytime connections and 22 of them did not involve a transfer. More than 1 million passengers were carried by plane on 18 of these 48 routes in 2019; the list included the 2 most popular flying routes in Europe that come with a rail alternative (Amsterdam-London and London-Edinburgh). An option involving a night train was available for 19 of the 36 routes that could be travelled by train in 6 to 8 hours. Only 10 of the 92 routes that took between 8 and 16 hours were domestic routes (almost exclusively located in Italy). An option involving a night train was available for 61 of these routes; the most significant exceptions were London-Copenhagen, London-Berlin and London-Zurich.

35 of the 43 routes that took more than 16 hours by train involved at least 1 night train in 2019. More than 1 million passengers were carried by plane on 14 of these 43 routes in 2019; they include the Rome-London, Paris-Lisbon, Budapest-London and Rome-Madrid routes. 16 of these 43 routes involved up to 2 transfers (with Vienna-Bucharest being the only route where a direct train was available), while 27 routes involved more transfers – up to 7 transfers for the London-Oslo and London-Gothenburg routes. No. of transfers

Direct train

No. of routes (2019)

1-2 transfers

67

Percentage of routes (2019)

127

3 or more transfers

49

Cannot be travelled by train

6

Total

250

Table 14. No. of required transfers for the top-250 European routes, according to the methodology used for 2019. 80% of the top-250 European routes that could be travelled by train could be travelled with either direct trains or with maximum 2 transfers in 2019. This number was lower for the top-250 European routes compared to the top-150 intra-EU routes; this mostly depended on the fact that 52 of the routes in this dataset connected or passed by London: given the small net-

22

27% 51% 20%

2%

100%

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

work covered by Eurostar trains, a transfer in London, Paris or Brussels was almost always needed. Journeys involving 3 or more transfers were typically very long.

Night-train alternatives Boarding one or more night trains is…

Necessary

No. of routes (2019)

Percentage of routes (2019)

106

42%

37

Optional

Not possible, but the route is served by a daytime-train under 6 hours

Not possible, and the route is served by no daytime-train under 6 hours The route cannot be travelled by train

15%

49

20%

52

21%

250

100%

6

Total

2%

Table 15. Night-train coverage of the top-250 routes. For 202 of the 250 routes included in the dataset, it was possible in 2019 to depart after 7am in the morning and reach the target destination by midnight. This was not possible for 43 other routes, almost exclusively international: on 37 of them travelers could board one or more night trains in order to reach their destination, while on 6 routes they had no nighttrain option and needed to spend a night in an intermediate stop – this was the case for the Oslo to Amsterdam/Paris/London routes, and for London to Stockholm, Gothenburg or Warsaw. These 43 routes involved on average 3.0 transfers; for 31 of them, the journey took 20 hours or even more.

Out of the 201 routes that could be travelled daytime, 106 came with a night-train option in 2019. On average, daytime travel took 9h17 on these routes, while nighttime travel took 13h21, even if the former involved 1.0 transfers on average while the latter involved 1.2 transfers. Night travel always took longer than daytime travel, except for Bergen-Stavanger. Night travel was particularly uncompetitive on the Paris-Barcelona route in the covered period, since the daytime journey took 6h27 while the nighttime alternative (involving a transfer) took 16h05; all train routes passing through this stretch were similarly affected. Out of the 201 routes that could be travelled daytime, 95 presented no night-train option in 2019; 49 of them consisted of routes with a travel time below 6 hours. On at least some of the other 46 routes, a night-train option would probably be competitive. Except for a handful of domestic routes in Spain and Greece, such underserved routes were international ones; the most popular included London-Geneva, London-Copenhagen and London-Frankfurt. Type of nigh-train option available

Direct night train

No. of routes (2019)

46

Connecting night train (journey takes < 16h in total)

Percentage of routes (2019)

32

Connecting night train (journey takes > 16h in total) Total

23%

65

46%

143

100%

Table 16. Type of night-train services for the top-250 routes where this option is available.

23

32%

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

A direct night train existed on 46 of the 143 routes where a night travel option was available in 2019; on average these journeys took 9h54. 67 other night routes required 1 or 2 transfers (average duration of the journey: 16h44). Even more transfers were needed in the other routes, which included some popular ones such as London-Madrid, London-Budapest and Rome-Madrid.

24

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Room for improvement of train services on popular routes Strategies to improve passenger rail transport in Europe fall out of the scope of this report. The performed analysis makes it possible however to spot some routes which are very popular in terms of passenger air traffic but where there is much room to improve the train service.

Among the routes included in the top-150 intra-EU list, there are some where the average speed of the journey was about half of the average speed for this list in 2019 (123 km/h). If we leave aside extremely long routes such as those exceeding 3000 km in length, slow routes typically involved 1-2 transfers and the boarding of a night train. The Madrid-Lisbon daytime connection constituted an exception in this respect.

Route Rome-Bucharest

Vienna-Bucharest Madrid-Lisbon

Venice-Frankfurt Helsinki-Berlin

Amsterdam-Copenhagen Stockholm-Luleå Madrid-Porto

Rome-Palermo

Copenhagen-Brussels

No. of night trains involved (2019)

Duration of trips (2019)

Distance (km)

Average speed (km/h) (2019)

2

40h32

2241

55

0

10h47

742

69

1

19h24

1

12h52

2 0 0

2949

13h51

1066

10h27

893

10h21

0 0

997

41h32 11h08

1

1108

12h00

841 852

1039

57 77 71 76 77 82 85 87

List of the 10 slowest routes of the top-150 intra-EU list, according to the methodology used for 2019 (routes above 3000 km are not included). Some of the routes included in the top-150 intra-EU list required travelers to transfer 4 or even 5 times during their journey. This is understandably the case for very long routes connecting Helsinki to other cities in the EU, but a high number of transfers was required in order to travel on shorter routes as well, including very popular ones such as Amsterdam-Copenhagen, Barcelona-Lisbon and Paris-Copenhagen. Route Helsinki-Stockholm

No. of transfers (2019)

Distance (km)

Average speed (km/h) (2019)

60h11

4232

13h32

1393

103

4

14h13

1394

98

Helsinki-Copenhagen

4

50h56

3588

70

Vienna-Milan

4

9h25

937

100

Amsterdam-Copenhagen

5

Duration of trips (2019)

4

11h08

Madrid-Muenchen

4

28h37

Amsterdam-Stockholm

4

Barcelona-Lisbon

Paris-Copenhagen

Amsterdam-Helsinki Madrid-Düsseldorf

4

16h34

4

4

841

2581

1485

54h57

3060

23h03

2308

70

76

90

90

56

100

List of the routes of the top-150 intra-EU list where train travel required 4 or more transfers, according to the methodology used for 2019.1 1 The analysis of the 2019 rail timetable looked at the connection ensuring the earliest possible arrival to the target city, provided that the departure took place after 7am on a typical weekday. Some alternatives requiring fewer transfers may have existed for the same routes, depending on the date and time.

25

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

85 routes included among the top-150 intra-EU routes came with an average speed of the journey which was below the EU average of 123 km/h. What would happen if train services on these routes were improved to the extent that the average speed of the journey increases to 123 km/h? Travel time would decrease by 25% or more on 24 routes, including very popular ones such as Rome-Catania, Rome-Palermo and Madrid-Lisbon. At least for some of them, train transport would become competitive with air transport. In absolute terms, travel time from Rome or Vienna to Bucharest could even be more than halved. An increase of the average speed of the journey could be achieved either by reducing the number of transfers or the waiting time in transfer or border stations, or by increasing the average speed of operation of trains. Route

Duration (2019)

Rome-Bucharest

40h32

Madrid-Lisbon

10h47

Vienna-Bucharest

19h24

Helsinki-Berlin

Amsterdam-Copenhagen Madrid-Porto

9h00

-54%

18h13

-55%

6h01

-44%

23h58

13h51

8h40

10h21

Rome-Palermo

Difference (%)

41h32 11h08

Stockholm-Luleå

Projected duration (average speed: 123 km/h)

10h27

6h50 6h55 7h15

-42% -39% -37% -33% -31%

List of the routes of the top-150 intra-EU list where a better service could result in a reduction of train travel time greater than 30%, according to the methodology used for 2019 (routes above 3000 km are not included). An increase of the average speed of the journey could also bring 9 routes under the threshold of 6h of duration, and bring 4 more routes under the 4h threshold. This improvement would impact popular routes, such as Amsterdam-Berlin, Amsterdam-Frankfurt and Milan-Frankfurt. Route Stockholm-Umeå

7h58

Milan-Munich

7h11

Milan-Frankfurt

Copenhagen-Berlin Frankfurt-Prague Barcelona-Bilbao

Amsterdam-Berlin Vienna-Stuttgart Madrid-Vigo

Projected duration (average speed: 123 km/h)

Duration (2019) 7h45

5h48

-2h09

5h15

-1h55

5h43

6h44

5h11

7h08

5h37

6h34

5h22

6h22

5h15

6h31

5h49

6h08

Difference

5h30

-2h01 -1h32 -1h30 -1h11 -1h06 -0h41 -0h37

List of the routes of the top-150 intra-EU list where a better service could bring train travel time under 6 hours, according to the methodology used for 2019.

Route

Projected duration (average speed: 123 km/h)

Duration (2019)

Difference

Copenhagen-Aalborg

4h51

3h48

-1h02

Vienna-Munich

4h11

3h51

-0h19

Madrid-Oviedo

4h39

26

3h56

-0h42

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

Route Amsterdam-Frankfurt

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Projected duration (average speed: 123 km/h)

Duration (2019) 4h05

3h46

Difference -0h18

List of the routes of the top-150 intra-EU list where a better service could bring train travel time under 4 hours, according to the methodology used for 2019. Some of the train services competing with the most popular short-haul flights in Europe are actually already very good in terms of duration of the journey, average speed and number of weekly connections – Madrid-Barcelona is probably the most outstanding case in this respect. The fact that millions of travelers still prefer to fly on those routes every year suggests that other factors need to be taken into account, first and foremost the price of the tickets.

It should also be considered that some of the flights are actually connecting flights:2 in order for travelers on these routes to use the train for at least part of their journey, it is important to be able to count on a good direct train connection with the airport hub concerned. This is sometimes the case for a few airports such as Frankfurt, Amsterdam Schipol and Paris Charles de Gaulle, but such options are still extremely rare elsewhere.

2 Eurostat data on short-haul flights does not flag connecting flights.

27

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in 2021 In general terms, the situation of train services in Europe in 2021 is worse than in 2019, mostly because of the cancellation of some services in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is not granted that those services will be resumed once the emergency period is over. As far as the set of routes included in this analysis is concerned, the most impactful changes include the suppression of the Hendaye-Lisbon and Venice-Paris night trains. For Portugal and Italy these constituted extremely useful connections with foreign countries. As a result, trips from Paris to Porto that used to take 18h56 now take 34h02; trips to Lisbon were similarly affected. The same goes for all routes that counted on the Hendaye-Lisbon night train, such as connections linking Lisbon and Porto to Brussels, Geneva, London and Lyon.

Night services involving France were further hit by the reduction of the Paris-Portbou service, which now only runs in weekends and is limited to the Paris-Toulouse stretch on weekdays. This has impacted quite a few connections between Spain and foreign countries, which heavily relied on the Barcelona-Portbou-Paris route; current travel options between Toulouse and Barcelona are very limited. For instance, the LondonValencia trip making use of a night train now takes 27h24 compared to 20h24 in 2019, and Barcelona-Frankfurt now takes 26h54 compared to 21h32 in 2019. Night trains linking Madrid with Lisbon, Vigo and A Coruña were also cancelled. The night train Rome-Bari-Brindisi was partly cancelled, since it now only runs on weekends. Options for train travel also decreased in 2021 compared to 2019 because of the lower number of services operated by Eurostar on the London to Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam routes and by the reduction in daytime direct connections between Barcelona and Paris. As a consequence, it is no longer possible, for instance, to travel from London to Warsaw, Prague or Valencia within a day; the same goes for ParisMalaga. On top of this, all train services between Sweden and Norway have been replaced by buses.

On a positive note, 4 new night-train services on the routes analysed can be noticed in the data about 2021, namely those covering the Paris-Marseille-Nice, Stockholm-Berlin, Vienna/Munich-Amsterdam and Vienna-Brussels routes. As a consequence, a night-train option is now available for passengers travelling from London to Stockholm.

Top-150 intra-EU routes

Passengers need less than 6 hours in order to travel 34% of the top150 intra-EU routes that can be travelled by train in 2021.8 9 These routes include 14 of the 30 busiest routes in the list, including the two most popular ones (Paris-Toulouse and Paris-Nice). 3 routes are even below or around 2 hours of duration, such as Paris to Lyon, Bordeaux or Nantes. Most of the routes with a travel time below 6 hours are domestic ones and they are mostly located in Germany, France and Spain; the subset also includes a few international intra-EU routes however, such as StockholmCopenhagen and Paris to Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Munich.

8 The routes that cannot be travelled by train are three routes to Greece, as there was no operating train connection to the country in the covered period (a bus transfer was necessary both on the Novi Sad-Belgrade stretch and across the Bulgarian-Greek border). 9 The analysis of train services in 2021 adopted a partly different approach compared to 2019, so the results of the two analyses are not directly comparable with each other (see the Methodology for more details).

28

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

Duration of the journey Less than 4 hours

No. of routes (2021)

4-6 hours

21

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Percentage of routes (2021)

14%

30

6-8 hours

54.9

15%

3

Total

15.1

39%

23

Cannot be travelled by train

33.6

10%

58

More than 16 hours

24.1

20%

15

8-16 hours

Cumulative no. of air passengers for these routes (M, 2019)

21.4

2%

150

2.4

100%

151.5

Table 17. Duration of the train journey for the top 150 intra-EU routes, according to the methodology used for 2021.

Route Paris-Lyon

Paris-Bordeaux Paris-Nantes

Madrid-Barcelona Lisbon-Porto Rome-Milan

Stockholm-Gothenburg Paris-Marseille

Brussels-Frankfurt

Hamburg-Düsseldorf Amsterdam-Paris

Frankfurt-Munich Paris-Brest

Paris-Montpellier

Frankfurt-Hamburg Paris-Frankfurt

Amsterdam-Frankfurt Frankfurt-Berlin Paris-Bayonne Munich-Berlin Rome-Bari

Vienna-Munich

Munich-Hannover Berlin-Düsseldorf Turin-Rome

Paris-Toulouse

Athina-Thessaloniki Stockholm-Malmö

Duration (2021)

No. of air passengers (both ways) (2019)

1h58

715,117

2h04

1,219,673

2h30

2,572,844

2h59

1,198,119

2h06

568,942

2h58

1,008,288

2h59

1,148,015

3h04

1,569,716

3h07

578,559

3h11

522,362

3h23

1,388,051

3h28

562,128

3h28

1,146,439

3h29

989,296

3h37

1,426,732

3h53

882,532

3h50

1,042,112

3h53

2,248,754

3h58

1,934,712

4h00

535,673

3h57

629,775

3h59

765,162

4h17

542,253

4h20

1,233,072

4h22

3,221,467

4h27

1,022,621

4h20

489,190

4h23

2,621,638

29

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

Route Milan-Naples

Duration (2021)

Munich-Cologne Madrid-Santiago Berlin-Cologne

Madrid-Oviedo Lyon-Nantes

Rome-Brindisi

Copenhagen-Aalborg

Stockholm-Copenhagen Hamburg-Stuttgart

Munich-Düsseldorf Madrid-Bilbao

Lyon-Bordeaux Venice-Naples

Madrid-A Coruña

Barcelona-Malaga Barcelona-Sevilla Berlin-Stuttgart Madrid-Vigo

Munich-Paris

Hamburg-Munich Helsinki-Oulu Paris-Nice

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

No. of air passengers (both ways) (2019)

4h33

1,376,954

4h40

719,692

4h38

1,018,045

4h42

1,434,481

4h51

562,382

4h46

548,209

4h57

525,571

5h00

782,849

5h01

1,397,474

5h02

1,488,902

5h05

584,312

5h01

738,375

5h04

835,731

5h10

535,778

5h12

680,075

5h14

848,962

5h16

1,045,029

5h40

683,927

5h31

1,235,068

5h47

1,014,392

5h53

956,641

5h48

1,745,720

5h55

3,191,073

Table 18. Routes of the top-150 intra-EU list where the train journey takes less than 6 hours, according to the methodology used for 2021.

Top 250 European routes

Passengers need less than 6 hours in order to travel 31% of the top 250 European routes that can be travelled by train. These routes include 11 of the 30 busiest routes in the list. 5 routes are even below or around 2 hours of duration, such as Brussels-London, London-Manchester and Paris to Lyon, Bordeaux or Nantes. Most of the routes with a travel time below 6 hours are domestic ones and they are mostly located in Germany, France and Spain; the subset also includes a few international routes however, such as Amsterdam-London, Paris-London, Stockholm-Copenhagen and Paris-Amsterdam.

Duration of the journey Less than 4 hours 4-6 hours 6-8 hours

8-16 hours

No. of routes (2021)

29

Percentage of routes (2021)

12%

44

18%

33

13%

89

36%

30

Cumulative no. of air passengers for these routes (M, 2019) 30.8 50.3 33.7 89.1

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

Duration of the journey More than 16 hours

Cannot be travelled by train Total

No. of routes (2021)

40

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Percentage of routes (2021)

Cumulative no. of air passengers for these routes (M, 2019)

16%

15

6%

250

100%

Table 19. Duration of the train journey for the top 250 European routes, according to the methodology used for 2021.

31

40.5 12.0

256.3

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Routes where trains already offer an alternative

The map shows the routes where train travel time is under 6 hours in 2021, based on the list of the top 250 European routes.

32

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

The map shows the routes where travel time of journeys involving a night train is under 12 hours in 2021, based on the list of the top 250 European routes.

33

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

PART II National factsheets

34

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

France

Train alternatives for the top 40 intra-EU routes for France Train alternatives were available in 2019 for all the top 40 intra-EU shorthaul flight routes for France that could in principle be travelled by train.

The average duration of the train journey was 8h02, ranging from 2h03 for the Paris-Lyon journey to 19h32 for Paris-Lisbon. The median was 8h14. 18 routes, i.e. 45% of the routes included in this list, could be travelled in less than 6 hours in 2019.

The average length of the journey on these routes is 1096 km, ranging from 390 km for the Paris-Nantes journey to 2243 km for Paris-Malaga. The median is 987 km. The average speed of the journey was 150 km/h in 2019, ranging from 91 km/h for the Paris-Porto journey to 250 km/h for Paris-Bordeaux. The median was 151 km/h. The average speed for daytime direct trains was 170 km/h. Duration of the journey

Less than 4 hours 4-6 hours 6-8 hours

8-16 hours

More than 16 hours Total

No. of routes (2019)

7

Percentage of routes (2019)

17.5%

11

Cumulative no. of air passengers for these routes (M, 2019)

27.5%

3

7.5%

17

42.5%

2

5%

40

100%

6.4

12.1

5.9

15.5

3.7

43.5

Table 20. Duration of the train journey for the top 40 intra-EU routes for France, according to the methodology used for 2019. 7 routes could be travelled by train in less than 4 hours in 2019. They were all covered by daytime direct connections, and they all connected Paris to other cities. 3 of these routes were international intra-EU ones, and more than 1 million passengers were carried by plane on 3 of these routes in 2019. However, only one of the 10 most popular intra-EU routes for France featured in this list (Paris-Amsterdam).

All these routes featured an average speed higher than the French average. The longest route was Paris-Montpellier (736 km), while the fastest was Paris-Bordeaux. Route

Paris-Lyon

Paris-Bordeaux Paris-Nantes

Paris-Amsterdam Paris-Montpellier Paris-Frankfurt

Duration (2019)

No. of air passengers (both ways) (2019)

2h03

715,117

2h09

1,219,673

3h23

1,388,051

3h39

1,042,112

2h10 3h29

35

568,942 989,296

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

Route

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

Duration (2019)

Paris-Düsseldorf

No. of air passengers (both ways) (2019)

3h45

464,579

Table 21. List of the routes where the train journey takes less than 4 hours among the top 40 intra-EU routes for France, according to the methodology used for 2019. No. of routes (2019)

No. of transfers Direct train

16

1-2 transfers

3 or more transfers

40%

23

57.5%

40

100%

1

Total

Percentage of routes (2019)

2.5%

Table 22. Top 40 intra-EU routes for France, by no. of required transfers, according to the methodology used for 2019. All routes could be travelled with either direct trains or with maximum 2 transfers in 2019; the only exception was Paris-Copenhagen (4 transfers needed).

On average, 0.8 transfers were needed per 1000 km of travel by train in 2019. Direct trains covered on average 694 km. The average length of the route increased to 1179 km for routes that included one transfer, and to 1710 km for routes that included two. The higher the number of transfers, the lower the average speed of the journey, at least for daytime routes. In 2021, passengers need less than 6 hours in order to travel 47.5% of the top 40 intra-EU routes for France that can be travelled by train. These routes include only 4 of the 10 busiest routes in France (but they do include the two busiest routes in France, Paris-Toulouse and ParisNice, which move around 3.2 million air passengers each). Most routes with a travel time below 6 hours are domestic ones, 3 of them are below or around 2 hours of duration (Paris-Lyon, Paris-Bordeaux, Paris-Nantes). Duration of the journey

Less than 4 hours

No. of routes (2021)

4-6 hours

10

Percentage of routes (2021)

25%

9

22.5%

8-16 hours

15

37.5%

Total

40

100%

6-8 hours

More than 16 hours

3

Cumulative no. of air passengers for these routes (M, 2019) 9.1

10.4

7.5%

3

5.4

14.3

7.5%

4.5

43.5

Table 23. Duration of the train journey for the top 40 routes for France, according to the methodology used for 2021.

Night-train alternatives Boarding one or more night trains is…

Necessary

No. of routes (2019)

Percentage of routes (2019)

17

43%

2

Optional

36

5%

Train alternatives to short-haul flights in Europe

Boarding one or more night trains is…

Not possible, but the route is served by a daytime-train under 6 hours

OBC Transeuropa • 2021

No. of routes (2019)

Percentage of routes (2019)

16

40%

5

13%

Not possible, and the route is served by no daytime-train under 6 hours Total