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In Europe, high-speed trains beat air carriers

In Europe, high-speed trains beat air carriers
photo: Pareto/In Europe, high-speed trains beat air carriers
24 / 09 / 2021

Mr. Nick Brooks, Secretary General of ALLRAIL published an interesting comment of how the US analyzed the experience of using high-speed trains in the EU and had to admit that they were successfully competing with air carriers.

In Europe, high-speed trains are beating air carriers.

Italo trains (a brand of the private rail carrier NTV) were cited as an example.

At the same time, it was emphasized that this is largely the result of competition with the Italian state carrier Trenitalia. It has helped drive down prices for consumers and drive innovation.

Accordingly, US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and the Ground Transportation Council were encouraged to promote competition in long-distance passenger rail travel in US transportation plans. This measure should be included in the list of measures that will help reduce carbon emissions.

In particular, it was noted that the emergence of Italo has led to a 40% decrease in average fares over 12 years. Now high-speed rail services have become so accessible that even workers of small businesses and the population of the regions can afford to make several trains trips a week.

The competition has led to the fact that the passenger traffic of high-speed trains in Italy has more than doubled - due to the switch to the railway of a part of the population that previously traveled by road.

And not only that: American experts especially noted the outflow of high-speed trains from air transport, since this topic is relevant for the United States: the sky over this country is filled with planes performing interregional flights. Indeed, in the United States at one time they preferred to develop air traffic, instead of modernizing the railway network for the transportation of high-speed trains, considering the latter to be unprofitable in comparison with aviation and not interesting for private investment. And now they were forced to admit their miscalculation.

It remains to add that, according to European experts, the emergence of Italo has also greatly benefited the state-owned company Trenitalia, prompting it to develop high-speed transport as well. After all, Italo immediately relied only on the use of high-speed trains on interregional routes. Thanks to this, as a result, such trains have become a common mode of transport in Italy.

Italo currently operates 50 high-speed trains operating throughout Italy at speeds of up to 305 km / h.

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