ARE THE TRAIN AND THE PLANE INCOMPATIBLE?

The competition between the two modes of public transport, the railway and the air, has taken on the appearance of a fight, especially since the ecological fashion has been inserted into the debate.This phenomenon concerns only a few parts of the planet, where the two modes of transport are the most developed. In fact, it is only Europe. The other continents are much larger and have little rail infrastructure, with the notable exception of India and China. But in Europe, competition is fierce.

It must be recognized that air transport has lost a great advantage over the train: speed. Europe is covered with a network of expressways and the time differences over distances of up to 600 or even 800 km are becoming minimal. It is necessary to take into account not only the real time of the journey and the plane is unbeatable with an average speed of 800 km/h compared to 300 km/h for fast trains, but also the difficulties that a plane passenger encounters in relation to the train customer to access his mode of transport. Barriers to access the aircraft: access to airports, passing through screening inspection posts, boarding procedures and the uncertainties of the time it will take to cross them neutralize the advantage of speed. Parenthetically, one wonders why it is necessary to search the passengers of the air to ensure that they are not dangerous and not to do so for those of the train. After all, the last attacks occurred on a Thalys train between Amsterdam and Paris on August 21, 2015.

One may also wonder why operators have specialised in one mode of transport and not in one type of clientele. In other words, why shouldn't airlines operate trains and train companies operate planes? Some attempts were made around the 2010s. The Air France/KLM group had an advanced plan to operate trains between some major French and European cities and its Roissy Charles de Gaulle base. This did not succeed because the national company was in a bad financial state and competition had not established itself in the railway sector. This is no longer the case. The European Commission has imposed the opening up of rail transport to competition and it has begun to take serious action. Nothing would prevent airlines from creating their own rail department.

And at the same time, there is nothing to prevent train operators from setting up subsidiaries to operate flights between selected destinations where the train is not efficient due to a lack of infrastructure. I am referring mainly to small traffic or destinations penalised by terrain that is difficult to cross. Thus, rather than operating trains in small markets, it would be more cost-effective and comfortable to use small-capacity aircraft such as the ATR 42 or 72 or the 50-seat Embraer 145. It would also be very possible to register passengers at existing stations and transport them directly to the planes parked at the nearest airports.

In fact, rather than separating the flows between air and rail, we could then separate the flows by type of transport: companies specialising in cargo and those dedicated to passengers. It should be noted that the distribution method is already organized in this way. Operators use travel agencies and GDSs to distribute the passenger market while cargo is organized in another way by freight forwarders and freight agents. The "yield management" mechanism governs the pricing of both air and train passengers. While the majority of stations are owned by rail operators, the same is not true for airports. Air competition has forced a certain neutrality for the ownership of ground infrastructure. Why shouldn't the same phenomenon happen with regard to stations? Airspace management is independent of airlines, why shouldn't railway management be independent of incumbent operators?

In short, instead of competing with each other with environmental communications, wouldn't carriers be better off completing their offer with the sole aim of facilitating the movement of passengers and freight? I am well aware that this is still very utopian, but I note that it is technically and administratively possible. One day, perhaps, we will be able to take a fast Lufthansa train from Amsterdam to Frankfurt and Trenitalia will put planes into service between Rome and Ancona.

Who knows?