Brits ‘virtually forced’ to take flights instead of trains due to ‘overpriced’ rail fares, says Greenpeace

Government must ensure rail travel is cheaper than ‘more polluting’ options, say campaigners

Even when effective rail routes exist within and from the UK, flying is still cheaper (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

British travellers will only choose to go on holiday by train if major steps are taken by the government to “wean millions of passengers off highly polluting flights”, Greenpeace has said.

Speaking to The Independent, the campaign group said that the “heatwaves across Europe are just the latest reminder of an escalating climate crisis”.

But as reported last week, new analysis shows choosing to swap flying for rail travel to go on a European holiday will cost an average of four times more, with the UK among the worst countries when it comes to offering affordable train fares.

Of the more than 100 routes researched, the Barcelona-London train was the most expensive, costing 10 times as much as flying – and sometimes as much as 30 times more. The report found plane tickets ranging from €12.99 to €80.60, while researchers were unable to find train tickets for less than €300.

In 2019, 3.36 million people flew between Barcelona and London, making it the third most-used short-haul flight route in Europe with a rail alternative.

The average cost of reaching the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, from the UK was almost seven times more expensive by train than flying; it’s a similar story to reach London from Marseille, or to reach Cologne from Manchester.

The smallest disparity on the routes analysed was a domestic journey from Edinburgh to London, though the cost of the journey by rail was still almost twice as much as flying.

Glasgow-London was the only domestic route where the train was cheaper on two out of six days analysed; on average, the train is twice as expensive as the more polluting flight.

Greenpeace’s report describes the UK as “a hotspot for climate-wrecking low-cost carriers”. Even bosses at Network Rail – the public body which owns most of the UK’s railway network – splashed out £10,000 a week on air fares last year because it worked out cheaper than getting the train.

Paul Morozzo, transport campaigner for Greenpeace UK, told The Independent that, while he understood people need to go on holiday, travellers are “virtually forced” to fly due to “tax breaks for aviation and overpriced trains”.

He said: “Air passenger numbers have almost bounced back to pre-pandemic levels and greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector are set to soar in future years. This is the inevitable outcome of government policies that refuse to tax airlines VAT or for the energy they use, and have even slashed Air Passenger Duty on domestic flights.

“Airlines are getting a free pass to pollute and price-conscious consumers in a cost of living crisis are left with little choice. Meanwhile the government is losing out on an estimated £4.7bn in tax revenue each year.”

Mr Morozzo suggests banning short-haul flights where a decent rail link exists – something that France has recently attempted to introduce – and introduce what he calls a “fairer tax system” that “stops penalising rail travel”.

The grounding of private jets has also been put forward, as well as a frequent-flier levy that Greenpeace UK believes would deter those who regularly fly.

“People need to get off planes and out of cars onto trains. The UK government should introduce a policy to guarantee the price of train tickets is held below that of more polluting travel options. Heatwaves across Europe are just the latest reminder of an escalating climate crisis. It’s time for the government to rapidly align transport policy with its vital goal of reducing carbon emissions.”

Airlines UK, the trade body for UK-registered airlines, said that its members would pay nearly £4bn into the Treasury this year through Air Passenger Duty, and that the removal of free allowances through the Emissions Trading Scheme from 2026 will raise up to £4bn extra over the next decade, in addition to the hundreds of millions of pounds they are already paying annually.

“Carriers are investing billions in decarbonisation projects and are fully committed to net zero emissions by 2050, through sustainable aviation fuels, hydrogen and other zero emission technologies, a fully modernised UK airspace and carbon removals,” a spokesperson for Airlines UK told The Independent.

“Pricing people out of air travel and stopping them seeing family and friends or taking a well deserved holiday is not the answer to our carbon challenge.”