Isn’t travelling by train better for the environment than flying?
Aviation transports people across the world, over distances of up to 15,000km. A high-speed train can be a suitable alternative or complement between large cities, while air transport remains the best, if not the only option for trips above 1,000 km, which represent 80% of air traffic. Intermodal solutions combining high-speed trains and planes are being developed. This is the case, for example, between Roissy Airport in Paris and Brussels Airport where Air France transports its passengers arriving from North America or Asia via high-speed train. This rail link replaces all flights between these two cities (see www.airfrance.com). High-speed trains have a large capacity, comparable to that of, for example, the A380, which limits its market to large cities. For regional links between medium-sized cities, air transport is more efficient and cost-effective since it has the flexibility to adapt the aircraft-type to the size of the market (from fewer than 20 seats to a few hundred). It is i
