The oil crisis triggered by the war in Iran has threatened flight disruption this summer, with many holidaygoers now considering train travel instead — or even a mix of both.
But is it worth it? Europe in Motion looked at price differences on some of the continent’s routes.
Specifically, we looked at direct trains with the lowest price and with a reasonable journey length — meaning that the time difference between the cheapest and most expensive option doesn’t exceed one hour per trip.
Additionally, the departure time must allow passengers to reach the station from the city without using a car, meaning that public transport must be operating.
Train vs plane: What’s most convenient on similar routes?
British trains remain eye-waterlingly expensive. On the London-Edinburgh route, which typically takes between four and 4 1/2 hours, tickets (€153) can cost up to three times more than a one-hour and 20-minute low-cost flight (€53) in the same period.
The average price per kilometre is also roughly double that of other European routes of similar length.
Italy comes in second by a wide margin, based on the route between its two biggest cities, Rome and Milan – usually a three-hour journey by high-speed rail.
Here, train and plane tickets tend to level out, with flights sometimes edging slightly higher than trains (€93 vs 127), especially at the weekend.
Third-placed Germany offers a reasonable €0.15 per kilometre on the Berlin-Munich route, which typically lasts a little more than four hours.
If booking around a month in advance, trains are still slightly cheaper than planes (€91vs €137).
For those who aren’t in a rush, France seems even better value. On the Paris-Bordeaux route (around two hours and 15 minutes), we’re looking at €0.14 per kilometre — while flying over the same weekend might cost at least three times as much.
Prices look competitive on other major routes too, like Paris-Lyon or Paris-Marseille, thanks to strong competition on the rail network from private operators like Ouigo or Trenitalia.
That said, timing does matter. Prices can swing, and booking further ahead doesn’t always mean cheaper fares. The same Paris-Bordeaux route, booked three months in advance, can end up costing €50 more.
Madrid-Barcelona (three hours and 15 minutes) looks like the standout deal of them all, with a cost per kilometre of just €0.13. Fly over the same period and expect to pay more than double.
Greece also has competitive prices on the north-south Thessaloniki-Athens route, coming at €69 for a 500km-long journey lasting a little more than five hours.
How easy is it to travel and move around by train in Europe?
For those wondering how effective it is to move around Europe by train, we can look to Eurostat’s latest report on European transport for the answer — and yes, train travel is relatively easy.
Railway density on the continent is roughly 58 km of railways every 1,000 square kilometres.
Moving around is particularly easy in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, the European countries with the most extensive networks in Europe, with more than 100 km of railway per 100,000 square kilometres
Germany is also one of the countries where the network grew most in the past decade, up 6 km per 1,000 km² of land area.
Norway, Greece, and Finland, on the other hand, rank at the bottom with fewer than 20 kilometres. Hence, it may not be a surprise that Greece is the EU nation that travels the least by train, covering only about 70 km a year, domestically.
Which European citizens use trains the most?
In the EU, 95% of that traffic takes place on domestic railways.
The beating heart of the rail network lies on a central-western axis, as Austrian, Hungarian and French passengers rack up the most kilometres, between 1,400 and 1,500, according to Eurostat.
The average EU citizen travels around 1,000 km per year. The total kilometres travelled reach 443 billion. If you were to cover that distance in space, you could take 500 round-trips between Earth and Jupiter.
UK data is not included in the Eurostat report, but the average is very similar to the EU’s. Nevertheless, rail traffic there is mostly concentrated in London and the south east, according to the Office of Rail and Road 2025 data.
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