08 Mar Can Europe’s trains compete with flying?
Discourse on the aviation industr-impact on environment
- The pressure about the aviation industry and its impact on the environment is moving into the political mainstream,
- with policymakers in Europe asking whether airlines and airports
- should be forced to reduce flight numbers to slow emissions growth.
- with policymakers in Europe asking whether airlines and airports
- It is a conversation that was absent from public debates and policymakers’ agendas until recently
On the ground…
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- Last week Spain followed France in unveiling a limited ban on short-haul flights.
- The Netherlands, Denmark and France plan higher taxes on flying,
- The Dutch government tried to lower flight numbers at Schiphol.
- But policymakers also need to acknowledge the popularity of cheap flying and the lack of viable alternatives
- no realistic long-term EU plan for high-speed rail
Rail context
- While aviation is a highly competitive marketplace with frequent price wars,
- rail remains dominated by state-run operators whose domestic priorities
- often trump efforts to improve international connectivity.
- rail remains dominated by state-run operators whose domestic priorities
- Yet in spite of the advantages flying has over rail, many aviation executives worry they will face growing regulatory scrutiny
- if they are not seen to be making progress on decarbonisation.
Aviation industry
- Aviation supports close to 5mn jobs in the EU and contributes €300bn, or 2.1 per cent, to European GDP,
- But it also accounts for about 4 per cent of carbon emissions and faces a huge technological challenge to decarbonise.
- European airlines and airports laid out a detailed plan in 2021 to reach net zero by 2050.
- Most of that will be achieved by switching to sustainable aviation fuels, or SAFs,
- which are made from feedstocks other than fossil fuels.
- Most of that will be achieved by switching to sustainable aviation fuels, or SAFs,
- They say they can decouple growth from carbon emissions,
- Airlines in Europe say they already live with the toughest environmental rules in the world:
- a carbon tax on intra-European flights and a requirement that 6 per cent of fuel on every flight is sustainable by 2030.
- Airlines are trying to push back against some of the measures to decarbonise, [arguing] it’s anti-competitive
- The industry says the rising cost of the EU’s emissions regime will drive up fares;
- pricing travellers off planes contributes about 15 per cent of the net carbon emissions reduction
- within the industry’s net zero road map.
- pricing travellers off planes contributes about 15 per cent of the net carbon emissions reduction
Advantages aviation enjoys
- Currently, airlines pay no duty on fuel and tickets are exempt from VAT,
- while airports and aircraft makers often receive state subsidy,
- That gives flying a cost advantage; found that trains were on average twice as expensive as flight
But problems with rail are…
- Cost is not the only issue preventing more rail travel.
- A bigger problem is that the network does not provide the connectivity needed.
- flights are almost always quicker than trains.
- Brussels is hoping to change that.
- Part of its efforts are to put more concerted focus — and investment — into the socalled TEN-T network
- trans-European spider web of roads and rail lines intended to link the continent’s hubs.
- It forms the backbone of the EU’s land transport policy.
- The commission’s overarching but non-binding target is to double highspeed rail traffic by 2030 and triple it by 2050,
- ensuring that passenger trains running on the TEN-T network travel at a minimum speed of 160km/h.
EU investments into rail
- The EU moved to boost cross-border rail services in 2016 with new rules to foster competition and encourage new entrants.
- It also pushed to make competitive tendering mandatory for public service contracts.
- Transport consumes the biggest share of the EU’s €723bn Recovery and Resilience Facility,
- while rail accounts for a majority of projects in the €25.8bn provided for transport by the Connecting Europe Facility
- But new rail infrastructure is expensive, often subject to delay and takes a long time to pay back its capital cost, making it
- less attractive to private finance and
- difficult for states to justify when public finances are stretched.
- spending €550bn on a “comprehensive” highspeed rail network in Europe could add €750bn in economic value by 2070.
- But efforts to roll out standardised signalling across the EU, s
- omething Citroën describes as “absolutely essential” for cross-border services,
- has been patchily implemented and has taken decades.
- omething Citroën describes as “absolutely essential” for cross-border services,
- But efforts to roll out standardised signalling across the EU, s
- Whatever Brussels proposes in terms of international connections often butts up against national concerns
Substituting aeroplanes with trains?
- the potential for substituting planes with trains was limited;
- In contrast to the sometimes-brutal competition in short-haul aviation,
- trains in Europe are mostly operated by state-owned companies with near monopolies in their national markets.
- incumbents are using taxpayer subsidies “to campaign against liberalisation behind closed doors”.
- But demand appears to be high enough to sustain more competitive markets
There is potential
- a lot of things can be done to increase the capacity of the rail sector,
- but we need to find money for these and we need to have the political will to continue to lower CO₂ emissions
- That political will is increasingly under threat from a backlash against Brussels’ green agenda
- in many states ahead of EU elections in June.
- Politicians fear voters will punish those pushing costly climate-related policies.
- in many states ahead of EU elections in June.
- Brussels is also wary of measures that might damage the bloc’s competitiveness.
Conclusion
- as with other areas of green transition,
- the EU risks falling behind if it does not invest now
- While that takes shape, aviation’s expansion — and the environmental opposition to it — looks set to continue
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