Spain bans short-haul flights where you can take a train
Spain bans short-haul flights where you can take a train
It isn’t yet known how many flights will actually be impacted by restrictions.
Legends 👑
Incredibly based.
It helps that Spain has world-class trains and are continuously investing in expanding the network.
I'm so jealous. I wish the complete shitstain right-wingers that cancelled train investment in my country were fired. (out of a cannon into the sun)
It helps that Spain has world-class trains
As Spaniard I wouldn't go that far.. but yeah they are good. But not all of them 😅 specially the shorter routes. Apart from some maintenance issues, It doesn't help that from time to time a line is down because they have stolen copper wires...
People steal the copper wires everywhere.
I know someone that works in the rail industry with building and maintenance.
It's apparently very important to electrify the wire as soon as you are done with whatever you were doing. Otherwise someone will know that it's not electrified and they will steal it. And the company/state will lose quite a lot of money in raw materials (the overhead wires are expensive as fuck), delays and further work.
Edit: This isn't in some third world country or anything either. This is in a rich first world country that's in the top 10 in terms of HDI and at least top 20 of pretty much every other positive index.
I was once running to the station in sevilla to get my train. I arrived 40 minutes late. The train departed right after I boarded.
Much love to the renfe, they waited for me :3
I read about world-class and then 40 minutes late...
Delay is most of the time due to congestion. Expanding the network is the way to reduce that.
Why bother wasting the resources to send em to space, when a bullet suffices.
Their trains are great, but the system is confusing AF.
The move to trains in Europe seems great! But still it costs me ~£300 short notice, ~£100 otherwise per person to get from London to Paris by train so for any trips it'll still need to be planes unfortunately. I dream of a day I can make an affordable night time trip to the Mediterranean on a train
The UK has an atrocious train system in terms of cost.
Point fingers where they belong: your own government.
The pricing and general operations on the Eurostar are pretty crap, which also annoys me to no end since I also use it semi frequently. Thankfully from what I've heard the high speed trains in Spain don't suffer from the same issues.
Hopefully some competition will improve things. If this gets off the ground it can only be good for prices and service. https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/10/12/evolyn-the-high-speed-rail-startup-with-mystery-investors-coming-for-eurostars-crown
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this only applies public flights not private flights.
IIRC that's the case in France, but per the article
It isn’t yet known how many flights will actually be impacted by restrictions.
Sadly the law in France has been made specifically so that it applies to nearly zero flights. Macron is really good at communicating, but terrible at doing
How about closing airports as well so private jets have no places to land and the overlords can take the fucking train like the rest of us?
Taylor Swift enraged!
Not applied to private flights from what I grasped. Taylor swift can rest easy.
Also for connecting flights, or only if the whole trip is a single short haul flight?
Literally the 1975
PP member Guillermo Mariscal explained that he believes the initiative is “ineffective” because it would only result in a 0.06 per cent reduction in emissions according to data from the College of Aircraft Engineers (COIAE).
Really? Just 0.06%? How can it be so low?
It depends on what the 100% represents. Does it represent the emissions of just Spain or the whole world? If the latter, then it makes sense.
But every bit counts, so this is a welcomed change - to an extent. Family and work emergencies will have to wait longer with this, for example.
It says in the article, the number of flights this would affect might be very small. They originally wanted to ban flights with a train alternative under 4 hours, but that didn't get through.
Because he's from the college of aircraft engineers, who may have a vested interest in flight, and is therefore paid to make that number look as small as possible.
The article talks about a plan, which depending on what it includes would vary. In the article one optimistic prediction says 10% the other more pessimistic says 0.06%. Until more decisions are made the real number will be unknown.
Also because aviation is actually not a big part of the CO2 emissions
https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector
We should still try to fly less, but there are other sectors that can make a much bigger impact.
It might be a low number, but then again this also seems like a initiative that will affect an even smaller number of people and is targeting something where a completely valid alternative exists, that has lower emissions.
It might not be the end it all solution, but there won't be one of those. So measuring it by that standard seems pointless to me.
I'd rather look at things like: Is there an alternative (and if so, what compromises does it make), what are the relative gains, and how easy is it to implement? And banning short distance flights seems to check those marks in my book.
Are there train stations at the airports for connections?
I think every airport I've been to in Spain is connected to the rail network. Connection to rail and bus is pretty standard, in Western Europe at least.
Airports are notoriously badly connected to final destinations, while trains usually take you to the city center and other public transport.
All the main airports are reached by train. Spain has relatively cheap high-speed railway network.
As per the article:
Flights with a rail alternative that takes less than two and a half hours will no longer be allowed, “except in cases of connection with hub airports that link with international routes”.
The only trip that I know of that takes less than 2.5 hs by train is Madrid-Barcelona and Madrid-Valencia . But Madrid is an international hub with connections to most of the international routes. So, my thinking is that this would not apply. It might only make sense for private flights, which are already very minor, AFAIK.
Again, smokescreen law, from smokescreen leftist party.
The planes in Spain fall mainly on those avoiding the train?
Do you want people to use their car more? Because this is how you get people to use their car more.
Why would you take your car instead of the train in this case? If you were going to fly anyway then the train makes sense. A car would be slower, you have to drive it yourself, and deal with storing it at your location.
I am German. So I have the "reliability" od German trains at the back of my mind.
Using cars over planes still sounds like an improvement to me, actually
As soon as you have at least 2 people in the car, yes. A plane's fuel consumtpion per pessenger is about that of a car, if the plane is at capacity.
How do you figure that?
I am German. So I have the “reliability” od German trains at the back of my mind.