By Nicholas Newman
Not only in the UK but also in Europe, many intercity commuters are changing the way that they are getting to work or to meetings. They are fed up with the poor reli-ability of plane services, caused often, by such excuses as the wrong type of weather or congestion, which seem to get worse every year. In many cases it is now quicker to take High Speed Trains from one European city to rather than take the plane. The Eu-rostar train is a case in point, especially for city centre to city centre journeys. Accord-ing to the trade press Eurostar has a 24% better reliability rating than competing plane journeys on the same routes. Commuters are realising that they are not burdened by tedious journeys to out of town airports such as Heathrow, followed by wearisome long waits at the check in counter.

This has resulted in Eurostar capturing 60% of the intercity market between London and Paris. Eurostar is expected to increase its share of the market by 2007 when the completed Channel Tunnel Rail Link cuts journey time further from 3 hours to two hours 25 minutes. The Eurostar experience of capturing a dominant portion of the intercity market is reflected elsewhere in Europe as on the routes between Paris and Brussels. Thalys High Speed Rail service carrying five million passengers a year, states Bernard Frelaté, Chief Executive Officer of Rail Europe.

Eurostar and Thalys are not the only rail services taking on the intercity plane ser-vices. Such trains are operating between 200 and 300 kph, reducing journey times in many parts of Europe, including Spain to Madrid from Seville from six hours to two hours fifteen minutes, and in Italy from Rome to Florence to one hour fifteen minutes from three hours. Other high-speed links are due to open in the next few years cutting journey times between Paris to Marseille in Summer 2001, Rome and Naples 2003, London and Glasgow in 2005, and Bologna – Florence by 2007. In effect, states Günter Ellwanger, Director of High Speed Rail at the International Union of Rail-ways, “Europe is experiencing a true revolution in the making, the age of the Homo Mobilis has begun. For many European citizens Europe is getting smaller.”

The impact of such high-speed rail services has begun to have a dramatic impact on Europe’s Regional Airlines, which at last have begun to face true competition. Air-lines such as Air France and Lufthansa AG have decided to replace many intercity routes with rail services, working in cooperation with rail operators rather than in competition, as in the case of short distance routes as Paris to Brussels, and Frankfurt to Stuttgart.

Simon McNamara of the European Regions Airline Association argues that the rail industry has an unfair competitive advantage due to 38% of European Rail Services income is derived from state sources in 1997. McNamara further argues that air ser-vices cannot begin to compete until rail subsidies are scrapped. However McNamara’s argument that there is not a level playing field is disputed by Caroline Lucas UK Green MEP for the South East Region of England she states that: "The air industry gets away almost scot-free when it comes to contributing tax income to society. The result has been that other more environmentally- sound forms of transport such as railways are at a serious disadvantage." She contends that aviation fuel is virtually tax-free with airlines paying as little as 17p a litre as compared to the heavily taxed energy costs that the rail industry face today in Europe. Indeed, the Green Party has calculated that the European aviation sector receives about £30 billion by in-direct subsidies. It could be argued that Government rail subsidies are merely trying to cre-ate a more level playing field for rail industry because the aviation industry has failed, for decades, to pay, the true but, often hidden costs, of plane travel.

As to the future, for many European intercity commuters, travel by train will become quicker than by plane.

To contact: Caroline Lucas UK Green MEP for the South East Region of England clucas@europarl.eu.int