France moves to ban short haul flights where rail options exist.

purplepanda · 13-04-2021 3:57pm #1

https://www.ecowatch.com/france-short-flight-ban-2652504952.html

People getting short haul flights from Paris to Bordeaux & even Nantes is ridiculous & certainly from an environmental perspective, when rail journeys of 2 hours & 30 minutes are available.

This might not apply to Ireland as Irish Rail journeys are slower by international standards but air travel from Dublin to Kerry, Cork & elsewhere shouldn't be an option & wouldn't be if speeds were increased on the network.

I would make an exception for air travel from Dublin - Donegal & Derry but find it hard to justify any other internal Irish air routes.

Chris_5339762 · 13-04-2021 4:08pm

No, absolutely not here until we have a decent rail service. Killarney - Dublin Airport for example is poor. 3 hours at least on the train, then a transfer to the 747 bus and onwards to Dublin airport via a slow circuitous route.

Maybe the aircoach but thats not a great comparison either.

Rail link from Heuston to airport and then MAYBE. But only if there is a decent service on the rails and much, much faster than what we have at the moment.

trixi001 · 13-04-2021 4:10pm

purplepanda wrote: »

https://www.ecowatch.com/france-short-flight-ban-2652504952.html

People getting short haul flights from Paris to Bordeaux & even Nantes is ridiculous & certainly from an environmental perspective, when rail journeys of 2 hours & 30 minutes are available.

This might not apply to Ireland as Irish Rail journeys are slower by international standards but air travel from Dublin to Kerry, Cork & elsewhere shouldn't be an option & wouldn't be if speeds were increased on the network.

I would make an exception for air travel from Dublin - Donegal & Derry but find it hard to justify any other internal Irish air routes.

Does make sense in France where they have a decent Rail system

But Ireland - our rail system is rubbish..The Dublin to Kerry/Cork/Knock flights are very useful to some as the last part of a journey home etc..as there is no rail service from Dublin Airport..this needs sorted before banning flights...and for it to feasible needs to be a passenger service between Dublin airport and Heuston Station - not via Connolly & the Luas as its next to impossible to plan a journey the way it is..

purplepanda · 13-04-2021 4:26pm

A 25 Km railway route from somewhere around Celbridge / Hazlehatch allowing high speed services from the Dublin Cork mainline to Dublin airport should also be built, with an interchange for the Sligo line so allowing further rail travel options between both lines.

I'm not a civil engineer so can't plan an exact route but building 25 Km of new railway would open up so many more regional journey possibilities & certainly relive congestion on the M50.

L1011 · 13-04-2021 4:56pm

There are no Dublin to Cork or Knock flights. There haven't been for about a decade or more for Knock

The only domestic flights are to Kerry/Farranfore which is well over 2.5h by rail, and Donegal/Carrickfinn which needs a time machine to do the general area by rail

Chris_5339762 · 13-04-2021 5:26pm

purplepanda wrote: »

A 25 Km railway route from somewhere around Celbridge / Hazlehatch allowing high speed services from the Dublin Cork mainline to Dublin airport should also be built, with an interchange for the Sligo line so allowing further rail travel options between both rail lines.

I'm not a civil engineer so can't plan an exact route but building 25 Km of new railway would open up so many more regional journey possibilities & certainly relive congestion on the M50.

I would love to see a Cork - Limerick Colbert - Dublin Heuston - Dublin Connolly - Dublin Airport - Newry - Belfast high speed train line.

Now please, ignore the cost

[Deleted User] · 13-04-2021 5:32pm

Letterkenny to cork, letterkenny to dublin, all existing routes upgraded to high speed rail, then sure lets talk banning flights

bk · 13-04-2021 8:06pm

Err.. There are already no major internal flights in Ireland. No Dublin to Cork/Belfast/Limerick/Galway/Waterford. Just the PSO routes to Donegal and Kerry.

There use to be regular flights between Cork and Dublin over a decade ago, but these were killed off when the motorways opened. You'd be faster driving Cork to Dublin today, then having to go through security and all that.

MyLove4Satan · 13-04-2021 8:08pm

Great for France - thing is the have a serious rail network. We don't.

Vic_08 · 13-04-2021 9:18pm

These constant comparisons of Ireland V Massively Larger European Country are tiresome.

Bordeaux has a metro population of over 1.2M, the entirety of Co. Cork is less than half that and Co Kerry is near enough 10%.

Paris Metro 18m, Dublin 1.4M

SNCF service on TGV lines is very good (although the requirement to have reservations even for short trips can be a nuisance) but many places the size of Killarney and Tralee not on LGVs have significantly poorer services than IE provide.

SeanW · 13-04-2021 10:35pm

It should also be noted that Paris Charles DeGaulle airport has an SNCF mainline train station. So the need for connecting flights in France is more limited than one might expect.

Victor · 15-04-2021 8:58pm

Are those flying within Ireland only travelling within Ireland or are they using connecting flights?

two wheels good · 15-04-2021 11:22pm

Apparently it's not quite as dramatic as it sounds.
Air France was losing money on the domestic routes before the pandemic. As part of its enormous Govt. bailout they agreed to curtail domestic services.

The most popular domestic routes, e.g Marseille, Toulouse will be maintained.
(No link as I can't remember where I read it)

Strumms · 15-04-2021 11:34pm

MyLove4Satan wrote: »

Great for France - thing is the have a serious rail network. We don't.

French rail is the best rail system I’ve experienced in Europe..

I flew from Paris - Nice and got there more slowly then my train journey from the same city. From leaving my hotel..faster by rail.

France moves to ban short haul flights where rail options exist.

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