"Why are flights in the UK so often cheaper than taking the train?"
Some of the reasons are nonsensical:
for trains:
"The fuel is subject to VAT at 5% on diesel and 20% on electricity.".
this should be the reverse?!?
for planes:
"Fuel accounts for a much bigger part of airlines’ costs, but they do not have to pay VAT or duty on it.".
#SaveThePlanet and tax planes in proportion of the damage they do to their environment!
@elduvelle @albertcardona Moreoever, why is it that there are direct flights between cities in the UK that I need eight changes on the train and a dozen little bus trips for?
With each change likely to fail at a rate of 10% that gives me a less than 50% change of reaching my destination…
Airplane it is.
This summer I have to go from Barcelona to Berlin. The non-flight options are ... insane. I wouldn't mind a 24-hour trip by train, but it's not even that*. Many legs, no coordination between providers, subways and buses included. I am not a XIX century naturalist crossing uncharted territory, I am crossing the European Union from South to somewhat North. It's embarrassing.
* I was hoping for a 2-leg train, i.e., Barcelona-Paris and Paris-Berlin in the same day, but no, that would require me sleeping in Paris! The lack of coordination is as astonishing as it is appalling.
@jonmsterling @albertcardona @elduvelle I kind of enjoy the vibe of public transit where it's like these are migrating beasts and by careful divination and ritual offering you can harness their primal energy to speed you in a particular direction, like a raptor riding thermals. Of course there isn't going to be a migration going precisely from A to B, but with a bit of cleverness you can stitch together something.
It's pretty magical and unprecedented in human history that I can cross so many different countries by land safely and relatively quickly. Sure, OK, it could be faster. But like, thank you migrating beasts you are wonderful creatures.
@jonmsterling @olynch @albertcardona @elduvelle The oldest Cook's timetable I have is from 1984, and then just going from Barcelona to Paris would take a whole day. Leave Barcelona at 07:40, arrive in Paris Austerlitz at 21:35. And that includes changing trains at the Spanish-French border. Different gauge, you know. (You knew that, I hope?) Nowadays there is a high speed railway in standard gauge between the border and Barcelona (and onward in Spain).
From Paris there was a night train to Berlin, the Ost-West Express, but it left already at 16:20. Oops.
Sure, it might have been a better idea in those days to not do the detour through Paris, and instead start with the Catalan Talgo to Genève, leaving Barcelona at 09:50 and arriving in Genève at 19:44. But is there any night train after that from Genève to Berlin? Nope, don't think so, can't see it.
(Of course, in those days Berlin was not as important as it is today after German unification, and it would make more sense to check for instance Barcelona–Frankfurt. But that doesn't change the fact that in 1984 there was no high-speed rail in Spain, in France a single line Paris–Lyon, and none in Germany. 60 years ago there was no high-speed rail anywhere.)
So I hope you see why I am a bit sceptical about your claim that "60 years ago, it was 10X better".
El Duvelle
Jon Sterling
Albert Cardona
Owen Lynch
Tor Lillqvist