France moves to ban domestic flights

[Puggit]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56716708

BBC said:

Over the weekend, lawmakers voted in favour of a bill to end routes where the same journey could be made by train in under two-and-a-half hours.

"On average, the plane emits 77 times more CO2 per passenger than the train on these routes, even though the train is cheaper and the time lost is limited to 40 minutes," it said.

Obviously here in the UK the train isn't quick enough or cheap enough!

[sherman]

The plane from Edinurgh to London is about 1 hour.
The train is about 3h 45mins but by the time you have got to the airport and into the city centres you will be pretty close on the 3.45.
The problem cones when easyjet will sell you a ticket for £10 and the train is 4x that easily.

[joshleb]

Makes sense to be honest.

Just wish there were more incentives to decrease train fares and promote it as a good way to travel.

If undertaking a work trip, more chance to get work done during the day and more flexibility if required with timings.

[grumbledoak]

Puggit said:

Obviously here in the UK the train isn't quick enough or cheap enough!

I am quite sure the people banning the flights won't worry about that. That will be someone else's problem.

And how else can we meet our CO2 targets for 2030?

[aka_kerrly]

grumbledoak said:

Puggit said:

Obviously here in the UK the train isn't quick enough or cheap enough!

I am quite sure the people banning the flights won't worry about that. That will be someone else's problem.

And how else can we meet our CO2 targets for 2030?

By building a really expensive fast train

[Dr Jekyll]

sherman said:

The plane from Edinurgh to London is about 1 hour.
The train is about 3h 45mins but by the time you have got to the airport and into the city centres you will be pretty close on the 3.45.
The problem cones when easyjet will sell you a ticket for £10 and the train is 4x that easily.

I invariably fly when travelling from London to Edinburgh because I live 20 minutes from Heathrow and am not planning to end my journey in Edinburgh city centre. I can normally get to Luton more quickly and much more easily than travelling into central London, never mind Heathrow.

Trains are fine if you're going from city centre to city centre, but not all journeys are like that. Many of the passengers on domestic flights are connecting to long haul flights so hardly want to travel in or out of a city centre.

[sherman]

Dr Jekyll said:

sherman said:

The plane from Edinurgh to London is about 1 hour.
The train is about 3h 45mins but by the time you have got to the airport and into the city centres you will be pretty close on the 3.45.
The problem cones when easyjet will sell you a ticket for £10 and the train is 4x that easily.

I invariably fly when travelling from London to Edinburgh because I live 20 minutes from Heathrow and am not planning to end my journey in Edinburgh city centre. I can normally get to Luton more quickly and much more easily than travelling into central London, never mind Heathrow.

Trains are fine if you're going from city centre to city centre, but not all journeys are like that. Many of the passengers on domestic flights are connecting to long haul flights so hardly want to travel in or out of a city centre.

Was only an example of how antiquated the british systems are.
It would take me half an hour to get to either the train station or the airport in Edinburgh.
If you were going to a connecting flight it would make sense to fly as it sould fet you to the airport you want.

[Sheepshanks]

sherman said:

The plane from Edinurgh to London is about 1 hour.
The train is about 3h 45mins but by the time you have got to the airport and into the city centres you will be pretty close on the 3.45.
The problem cones when easyjet will sell you a ticket for £10 and the train is 4x that easily.

I had no idea the train could be that quick - so I just looked and not sure how messed up the timetables are at the moment but 4hrs32 is quickest I could see.

Anyway, it's well over 2.5hrs so the point is somewhat moot.

[grumbledoak]

aka_kerrly said:

By building a really expensive fast train

I struggle to see our shiny new Hornby White Elephant doing anything anything useful at all.

[sherman]

Sheepshanks said:

I had no idea the train could be that quick - so I just looked and not sure how messed up the timetables are at the moment but 4hrs32 is quickest I could see.

Anyway, it's well over 2.5hrs so the point is somewhat moot.

Knew I had heard 4 hours or less. Must be a covid casualty. The trains can do it. The infastructure cant yet.
https://www.scotsman.com/regions/edinburgh-fife-an...

[joshleb]

Anyone here ever fly from Manchester to London? That's surely the comparable journey it's comparing to.

[anonymous-user]

the only issue i have with uk trains, is unfortunately in the summer it is like being in a rubbish tip with a jockstrap over your nose.

[anonymous-user]

joshleb said:

Anyone here ever fly from Manchester to London? That's surely the comparable journey it's comparing to.

Before all this regular from Chester to Bristol.

Takes about 20 mins vs 3+ hours in the car and no idea on the train.

As others have said it’s fine if you live in the city centre and end in the city centre, it’d take me 20-30 minutes just to get to a station that would mean no change, then the main journey then 20-30 minutes the other end, pointless.

[silverfoxcc]

True

back in the 80s BA did a turn up and go shuttle ( sort of)If the sceduled one ws full they had a slot for the relief, We had 5 on it one day...great.


But the advsntage is we live West of Heathrow and 25 mins away BiL lives 1 mins from Turnhouse
Result leave home at 08.00 on the 09.00 shuttle, land at 10.15. indoors having a cupa at 10.45

2.45 door to door
Train!!

Bus to local station. 20 mins
1.10 to Waterloo
15mins to KX
5hrs to Waverley
30 mins by bus

7.45 travelling. at best!!!

Driving 8hrs

[Sheepshanks]

Lord.Vader said:

Before all this regular from Chester to Bristol.

Takes about 20 mins vs 3+ hours in the car and no idea on the train.

As others have said it’s fine if you live in the city centre and end in the city centre, it’d take me 20-30 minutes just to get to a station that would mean no change, then the main journey then 20-30 minutes the other end, pointless.

That's (the air part) not a normal scheduled route though!

[Kickstart]

Don’t have any particular issue with it save for costs - pre lockdown often travelled from Manchester to London and whilst I prefer the train it’s often the most expensive option
I read the BBC article but no mention of private flights I assume this won’t apply to the great and the good...

[Countdown]

joshleb said:

Anyone here ever fly from Manchester to London? That's surely the comparable journey it's comparing to.

I looked into this and cost-wise it wasnt a million miles away . IIRC an Anytime ticket on Virgin was £350 and a plane ticket was £220. However the extra time to drive out to Manchester airport, add on parking, check-in an hour before departure, and then another 45min to get from Heathrow to Central London after landing made it pointless

[xeny]

Dr Jekyll said:

Trains are fine if you're going from city centre to city centre, but not all journeys are like that. Many of the passengers on domestic flights are connecting to long haul flights so hardly want to travel in or out of a city centre.

The ban doesn't cover connecting flights - 2nd paragraph here https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/04/france-bans-a...

[Piersman2]

silverfoxcc said:

True

back in the 80s BA did a turn up and go shuttle ( sort of)If the sceduled one ws full they had a slot for the relief, We had 5 on it one day...great.


But the advsntage is we live West of Heathrow and 25 mins away BiL lives 1 mins from Turnhouse
Result leave home at 08.00 on the 09.00 shuttle, land at 10.15. indoors having a cupa at 10.45

2.45 door to door
Train!!

Bus to local station. 20 mins
1.10 to Waterloo
15mins to KX
5hrs to Waverley
30 mins by bus

7.45 travelling. at best!!!

Driving 8hrs

I used to do the weekly commute from Aberdeen to Slough. I could do door to door between home and office from 7.00am to 9.30am most weeks. Main variable was how long I had to wait for my booked taxi at Heathrow.

Train... 8 hrs minimum, a whole day wasted in reality.

[untakenname]

France don't want people working from home and commuting in one or two days per week by plane, it's probably the main reason why our government didn't bail out Flybe as it undercut the trains by such a significant amount both time and price wise.