Europe’s Experiment: Treating Trains Like Planes

when the world thinks of europe they think of the trains no continence countries have so collectively chosen to develop such dense and efficient networks of passenger railways one can step on a train above the arctic circle in narvik norway travel exclusively on the rails and end up all the way at the continent's border with asia in istanbul but it's not going to be efficient that's because while possible this routine touches on the network's fatal flaw france germany spain italy and others have each developed some of the world's most efficient and effective rail networks but they're just not well connected take milan for example europe's eighth largest metro area while a world-leading network exists south to the rest of italy and north into nearby switzerland just three trains go farther a fairly frequent service to paris a once daily trip to frankfurt and an overnight train to munich and vienna this isn't an isolated edge case paris and madrid are the european union's two largest metro areas and yet they have zero direct trains running between them in fact the farthest one can travel from france's borders on a direct high-speed train from paris is london amsterdam munich or milan and not only is there a dearth of direct trains but connections are hardly straightforward a herculean effort went into dinging a tunnel from france to the uk to connect the two countries rail networks and yet in practice they connect london to the continent not england and certainly not the uk technical constraints currently prevent practical cross-border passenger service beyond london or by anyone the eurostar but the eurostar service does little to integrate with the uk's existing domestic network to travel from paris to manchester for example one must individually book the eurostar from paris to london then upon arrival walked 20 minutes from saint pancras to houston station to take another train which also must be booked individually up to manchester the fact that this itinerary cannot be booked as a single ticket both means people are less likely to identify it as a possibility and that if the first train is delayed enough that the seconds is missed there's no obligation for the operator to rebook the traveler onto the next one so while only four hours of train travel stand between france's largest and the uk's second largest city a competitive number versus air travel these inefficiencies functionally increase it to an untenable level the competitor planes also significantly undercut trains on fares unlike airlines who price connecting itineraries lower than direct to compensate for the inconvenience the fact that the two segments of this trip must be booked separately and are therefore priced separately makes this functionally impossible even if it would be a winning strategy one would be lucky to find a combination of train fares totaling 150 between paris and manchester while airfares on this route typically sit below 100 this phenomena is consistent continent-wide average train fares between paris and barcelona typically sit three times higher than airfares from amsterdam to london it's four times higher cases like milan to frankfurt do exist where trains only cost marginally more but that's not the average in europe crossing borders by rail is more expensive and less convenient this is no coincidence the better part of a century ago as europe rebuilt and reconnected in the wake of world war ii countries across the continent search for opportunities to revitalize their war-torn economies a number of them especially warm southern nations like spain and italy identified the potential of tourism this conveniently coincided with the opening of the jet age in which new aircraft development and economies of scale made air travel faster and more affordable package holiday providers took advantage of this to offer increasingly inexpensive trips to increasingly far-flung destinations and some even went further to set up airlines entirely dedicated to flying vacationers like condor and britannia airways as travel abroad became affordable cooler coastal towns closer to home like england's margate torquay and blackpool started a slow slide into ruin but simultaneously to the south tourist numbers exploded as sunny seaside towns quickly developed into destinations the oil crisis in the 70s stunted this growth but it soon accelerated again in the 90s as the business model pioneered by condor britannia and others was refined and innovated upon the budget airline was formed ryanair easyjet and others not only offered lower fares by themselves they also added market pressure that pushed down airfares industry-wide flying was now an approachable luxury and destinations previously too far for a practical vacation became the most intuitive options decades on budget airlines have thoroughly taken over travel across europe they grew out of connecting the north of europe to its south but today go east west and everywhere in between meanwhile however trains the same oil crisis that stunted the growth of international vacationing in the 70s accelerated the development of high-speed rail facing a similar resource scarcity decades before japan captured the world's attention by opening the first electric high-speed rail surface between tokyo and osaka the shinkansen embarrassed by being beaten to the punch major economies globally started developing their own plans for electric high-speed rail while the us uk italy and others made marginal progress in speeding up their trains the first to properly match the shinkansen speeds was france on september 22nd 1981 france's lien agronomy test sudes opened for passenger service what was a three hour and 40 minute trip between paris and lyon the day before now took just two hours and 40 minutes the engineering effort behind these smooth gentle tracks was colossal the construction cost some 18.7 million dollars per mile or 11.6 million dollars per kilometer but as the country's first and third largest cities a first line between paris and lyon made sense especially since it also reduced travel time to marseille the second largest france continued developing this network in this intuitive manner opening el javed lantique in 1989 to speed up travel to ren nant and bordeaux then extending the line past leon to speed up trips to marseilles the nation's most ambitious connection occurred next with the opening of el jeve nord which linked paris to calais the start of the brand new channel tunnel to britain come 1994 just 13 years after the continent's first high-speed train rolled out of the station it was now possible to take a two-hour trip under the ocean between two of the world's most economically important cities paris and london this was momentous but unfortunately still is momentous this is still the most notable example of two european countries collaborating to connect to each other by high-speed rail it's an exception to the norm you see france's high-speed network developed from the inside out in order to justify the enormous upfront cost of these rail projects the politicians behind them focused on connecting the greatest number of french people to the greatest number of other french people not germans italians or spaniards germany did the same as did italy spain and essentially every nation with high-speed rail in europe this phenomenon is paralleled with the trains themselves with slower travel speeds and fewer constituents to appease international destinations have always been an afterthought to the state-owned operators that dominate the european railway industry trains primarily serve as domestic transport in europe planes dominate the international industry perhaps beyond the maps and metrics the case studies and figures the best evidence of the limitations of cross-border european rail travel is the fact that for decades the eu itself has been working to fix it cutting against the grain of history since the 1990s the eu has authored reports drafted directives and past regulations seeking to address the two fundamental shortcomings of european rails a lack of competition and a lack of cohesion identifying the fact that only a measly six percent of travelers went by rail in 2001 the eu bemoaned how a lack of modernization and management and infrastructure had resulted in more road congestion more bottlenecks and more car crashes a series of partially effective laws followed citing the fact that intra-eu rail travel remained at six percent in 2013 the eu again recognized that rail had effectively stagnated on account of a lack of competition and standardization and decided something more needed to be done in 2016 the eu passed a series of directives and regulations collectively called the fourth european rail package it was the most comprehensive rail legislation to date the fourth package is broken into two pillars the technical and the market on the technical side the process of disbanding nation-run monopolies took a major step forward with the addition of more stringent monitoring and the announcement that public service contracts would become subject to competitive tendering beginning in 2023 the technical side on the other hand sought to simplify by expanding the european union agency for railways into a one-stop shop for all vehicle registrations litigation issues and safety certification together the bundle of legislation aimed to increase competition and cut away some of the red tape holding back international rail routes while it was the fourth attempt the package along with the three prior has effectively cracked the market wide open theoretically any operator public or private can now operate passenger trains anywhere within the european union for the first time in a long time european rail strategy is undergoing fundamental change to date as the eu hoped the most profound impact of the fourth package and its predecessors is in the increased competition between the old powerful incumbents deutsche ban sncf trinitalia renfe and a new wave of scrappy startups and international subsidiaries in 2012 a fleet of stylish brand new high-speed trains appeared on recently liberalized italian rails connecting naples to milan the open access private rail company atallo backed by a 1 billion investment had purchased 25 french alston agv train sets and started direct competition along the country's busiest most densely populated long distance route offering slightly lower ticket prices onboard wi-fi and streamlined largely automated booking the private operator took the incumbent trinitalia head-on and the company took off leasing access to the corridor and outsourcing maintenance and food service to minimize overhead the service proved viable and in the years that followed a tallow expanded nationwide turning its first profit in 2015. yet rather than siphoning away customers from genitalia italo's new service across a critical domestic route unearthed a previously hidden demand from 2011 to 2018 while trinitalia went from commanding all italian high-speed traffic to only three-fourths the revenue pool had grown to such an extent that the company actually gained business with competition upping offerings and lowering prices more italians were taking the high-speed trains than ever before the loser wasn't trinitalia but rather the airlines as the roam to milan air passenger numbers have and ryanair gave up the route entirely now the attalo situation was unique in that it took on the incumbent provider directly offering a nearly identical route with nearly identical service on nearly identical trains in a 2016 study of competitive open access rail providers previously and currently operating of the 34 such companies in europe only attalo was high speed while 12 offered low cost low quality services and another 11 offered niche services like night trains and weekend routings in other words 23 of 34 companies sought to minimize direct competition by offering something different than the incumbent flix train for example entered the german rail scene in 2018 when it took over the hamburg cologne express line without ever actually buying a single train rather than put up major money to challenge deutsche bahn's high speed trains directly flixtrain instead opted to run older renovated trains leased from railpool and operated by the germany company ige to offer an alternative and far cheaper service so far it has worked the success of flix train's daily service from hamburg to cologne a route far cheaper and only slightly slower than deutsche band's high speed option has emboldened the company to expand across germany open in line in sweden and even offer its first international connection to switzerland flickstrain might be unique in the fact that it owns no rolling stock but its budget business model is far from uncommon for the early days of what may well be an open access revolution the closest precedent to what's happening now in the european railways industry is the deregulation of the american and european aviation markets from the 1970s onward it was exactly that that opened the door for ryanair easyjet southwest and others to grow into some of the world's largest and most influential airlines no longer did airlines have to charge the fares fly the routes and offer the service that the government dictated capitalizing on this precedent sncf france's national rail operator knew exactly what to do back in 2013 in anticipation of the continent's coming liberalization wego was founded with the intention to adapt the low-cost airline business model to the rails tickets can only be bought online rather at labor-intensive ticket counters up charges were abundant with luggage and even the use of electric outlets costing extra legroom was tighter staffing was more limited and daily train utilization was higher all around the experience was worse but like its airborne equivalent this was a compromise people were willing to make in exchange for its rock bottom prices while its full service equivalent offers the 90 minute trip between ren and paris for no less than 36 dollars wego sells the same route for as little as 16 while sncf always had the ability to undercut itself within france wego was founded with an eye towards the future we're now living through it was a test and seemingly a successful one but the ultimate ambitions of wego laid well beyond its home country in 2020 when spain opened up its lines for closely monitored competition wego espana was ready and in 2021 france's national rail operator started its first route entirely within spain barcelona to madrid in quick succession and in direct response to the success of wego and france spain's national operator renfe founded avlo to also offer low cost service between the two cities and a third competitor iryo is also expected to commence operations on the route later in 2022 including the incumbent full-service high-speed train operated by renfe that means this route will see four different services competing head-to-head between the same cities barcelona to madrid is becoming the world's most competitive rail route a certain extent of this cost-differentiated head-to-head competition seemingly can work based on the experience of atallo in italy and based on the experience of budget airlines for example on the london to barcelona air route british airways and iberia passenger numbers stayed relatively consistent throughout the early 2000s well nearly all of the growth can be attributed to easyjet and ryanair entering the market the budget operators didn't only capture demand they created it wego has observed something similar a passenger surveyed shortly after launch 50 indicated they would have otherwise taken the full service alternative but crucially 25 say they would have taken the car bus or plane and another 25 said they would have not traveled at all given the parallels in this phenomena that means low-cost rail operators don't need to work within the context of current demand they don't need to compete head-to-head on the continent's busiest routes like barcelona to madrid paris leon or milan tyrone because they're creating rail demand they can create routes that previously could not have profitably operated given lower passenger numbers this was how budget airlines took over the world not through direct competition but through induced demand so continuing the parallels with budget airlines what we'll likely see going forward is route innovation especially focused on appealing to leisure travelers the french riviera is an extremely popular vacation spot but the stretch from khan to the italian border currently only sees long distance service on major routes to major french cities however a private low-cost rail operator could take a page out of allegiant airlines playbook for example vera us airline focused on connecting small towns to popular vacation spots like las vegas and florida through low-cost flights a few times a week this is centered on the principle that vacationers will schedule their trips around convenient transport unlike business travelers to keep to their strict schedule and the fact that allegiance has one of the world's highest airline profit margins proves this principle true similarly one could imagine a private low-cost operator running a twice weekly train starting in the early morning from compare in brittany stopping at small towns like loyola vaughn and raydon on its way to ren and speeding down on the high speed lines to marseille before dropping passengers off at all the small coastal towns up until the italian border vacationers would plan around this convenient transport and the business model could prove similarly profitable but given the weakness of cross-border rail travel in europe currently the biggest opportunity for new innovative private rail operators in europe likely centers on long distance international connections one could imagine for example a vast network of direct trains from france belgium the netherlands and germany to popular vacation spots to the south like barcelona florence and rome of course the barrier to this is travel time especially relative to rail's airborne competitor passengers do tolerate longer travel times in exchange for the convenience and comfort of trains but only to an extent there's still the infrastructure problem with track development always having been intertwined with rail service development which itself has been focused on domestic service those cross-border gaps in high-speed rail still exist giving to barcelona florence and rome requires dealing with the inefficiency of the tracks between them and the north this is where the liberalization of the rails deviates from the liberalization of the skies planes only need airports which exist effectively everywhere trains need tracks which require a level of upfront investment far above what most private companies tolerate operators can only induce demand where governments have decided to build tracks so in order to fulfill their goal of usurping the aviation industry and unlocking the full potential of the next era of rail development europe has to find a way to view infrastructure from the continental scale rather than a national one it has to invest in connectivity but that next era has already started relative to the aviation industry europe's rail industry is roughly here somewhere between 1980 and 2000 as deregulation took full force and of course what happened next was this the fastest 20 years of growth and innovation the industry has ever seen this revolution is already starting on the rails what's left to decide now by governments and innovators is just how precedent setting the next 20 years of european train travel are going to be i've been waiting to announce this for a long time extremities is back the show about how and why the world's most remote settlements exist that so many of you love so much is starting again next week with a fantastic first episode about one of the most remote and fascinating pieces of american territory wake island a dash of land in the middle of the pacific that's briefly become a crucial refueling point for aircraft crossing the ocean the world's wealthiest individuals once landed on a wake on pan am clippers to spend a night in a luxury hotel before continuing their journeys but today just a skeleton crew from the u.s air force maintains the airfield in case its proximity to asia becomes militarily strategic again to be honest we had a tough time making the economics of this rather high budget show work on youtube but luckily nebula and curiosity stream have joined forces to bring it back as an exclusive monthly series on both streaming sites next thursday august 4th episode 1 releases on both platforms and then monthly after that we'll release episodes about the world's most remote settlement tristan de cuna the world's northernmost inhabited place ellesmere island and plenty more of the world's extremities what makes this possible is the tens of thousands of you that have signed up for the nebula curiosity stream bundle deal the deal that i'm confident in saying is the best in streaming that's because when you sign up at our link curiositystream.com you'll get access to both streaming sites for an entire year for just 14.79 that's just three lattes to get a year's worth of educational entertainment that you'll actually watch not only from us but also from loads of other creators that we know from our audience crossover analytics you already watch plus you'll be supporting all these independent creators while you're at it so in order to watch extremities plus all the other fantastic nebula and curiosity stream originals click the button on screen or head over to curiositystream.comwendover to sign up today

Channel: Wendover Productions

Views: 1,592,874

Keywords:

Id: U9jirFqex6g

Length: 20min 26sec (1226 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 27 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/ijxy]

What the hell? Who travels that far by train? We treat trains like cars in Europe, not like planes. You commute with trains.

[u/Thanzo]

Didn’t the uk rail system go through a wave of privatization/liberalization? I wonder how that compares to Europe’s and if that would change the analysis at all.

[u/zeugding]

The analysis in this video reeks of the American capitalist mindset. RyanAir is not a model to be emulated, regardless of its prices. It is trading off standards of quality for a stratified system of "premium experience" calling it "innovation" instead. Ridiculous.

[u/Bananawamajama]

Spoiler: They couldn't fly.

[u/neirein]

I skimmed through... does the video really not mention Interrail?!?