European public opinion poll shows support for shifting flights to rail

Many people in Europe are willing to shift from air to rail - even for international travel and often even if they have to accept significantly longer travel times. This is shown by a new representative survey conducted by the opinion research institute YouGov in Germany, Poland, France, Spain and the Netherlands. The survey, commissioned by Transport&Environment and Germanwatch, was published to mark the official start of the European Year of Rail 2021 on March 29.

Key results:

• A large majority in Germany, Poland, France, Spain and the Netherlands would be willing to use night trains (69%)
• More than one-third of respondents would accept travel times of over five hours when shifting to rail (37%)
• Nearly three out of four respondents (73%) think that that rail travel on the same route should generally be cheaper than air travel