ALLRAIL and one of our members – the online travel comparison and booking portal Omio – are both partners in a new campaign to replace short haul flights with rail, in order to decarbonise the transport sector. The campaign is spearheaded by SilverRail Technologies and there are ten other organisations that are partnering with it as well.

Firstly we must be clear: airlines still have a important role in the global economy. This should be on long haul routes, where they connect different parts of the world, particularly across the oceans.

However, with air travel accounting for 2.5% of global CO2 emissions, a number of countries are already phasing out certain short haul overland flights in favour of greener rail alternatives.

At the same time, the rail alternative must be an attractive one, in terms of frequency, choice and affordability.

Therefore, the campaign calls for 3 key obstacles to be overcome:

1) Achieve interoperability of rolling stock and track infrastructure and develop new cross-border ticketing solutions – to finally end the fragmentation of EU Rail along national borders.

2) Improve the end-to-end customer experience, for example with a new mandatory Agreement on Journey Continuation between all operators – so that passengers do not get stranded when changing trains.

3) Speed up market opening – to reduce fares, improve attractiveness, eliminate inefficiencies and grow the size of the rail sector.

To read more about our new campaign, please click here.