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RAIL-AIR RAMPS UP Rail-air connections are now established at most hub airports in mainland Europe. France, along with Germany, is a leader in rail-air – its SNCF link, which operates TGV trains to Paris Charles de Gaulle from domestic points in France along with Brussels, is light years ahead of anything the UK can offer and allows you to book your flight and train at the same time. Te Netherlands’ KLM is now
considering launching rail-air routes to Schiphol from the likes of Brussels, Paris and Dusseldorf. KLM can be accused of being a rail-air “laggard” because it majors on sixth-freedom or transfer traffic. As transfer traffic is vital to the airline’s success, it prefers to control customers throughout their journey rather than rely on rail operators, some of which may be located outside of the home country. Luſthansa and Deutsche Bahn,
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FROM TOP: New night services are planned for Paris; how Nightjet’s route map will expand in the coming years
operators of France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Why might night trains require state
support? It’s because their profitability varies owing to several factors. In the UK, for example, the Caledonian Sleeper requires government subsidies as its services remain loss-making. Factors that make overnight trains
costly to operate include poor rolling stock utilisation, low passenger count and a high staff-to-customer ratio compared with daytime trains. Routes can also be much more complex than a simple air journey – taking the Nightjet from Vienna to Berlin, for example, involves transiting through several countries.
MAY/JUNE 20 2 1
meanwhile, will be expanding their cooperation in the coming months – from July they will offer rail-air connections to Frankfurt from both Hamburg and Munich, while December will see the addition of a Frankfurt-Berlin link among others. Tese ambitious rail-air plans centre around Luſthansa’s Frankfurt hub rather than its second hub at Munich because the latter airport is not directly connected to DB’s mainline network. Not to be overlooked are Swiss and
Austrian Airlines, together with their nations’ rail systems. Austrian, like Swiss, now applies its flight codes to its rail-air connections, with most domestic flights axed. Austrian has acted in this way partly because rail offers a green alternative but also
because it was a condition of receiving €600 million in state aid. Further developments are awaited
with interest. BT bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om
Luſthansa and Deutsche Bahn will be expanding their cooperation on rail-air links in the coming months
IAKOVKALININ/ISTOCK
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