A new analysis from Transport & Environment (T&E) warns that the EU Passenger Package, despite being a major step forward for passenger rights, will still leave 43% of the bloc's busiest cross-border flight routes difficult or impossible to book by rail. The finding underscores a persistent barrier to shifting short-haul air travel to lower-carbon trains.
T&E's assessment highlights that while the rules improve protections for international train passengers, they do not guarantee seamless intermodal booking. This gap means travelers on many key corridors cannot rely on catching the next train if a flight is canceled or delayed, undermining the package's goal of promoting rail as a viable alternative to air travel.
The infrastructure challenge remains acute: without integrated ticketing and through-ticketing agreements, passengers face fragmented booking processes across multiple rail operators. T&E argues this complexity discourages adoption, especially on popular routes where flight frequencies are high and rail connections exist but are poorly marketed or coordinated.
Geopolitically, the EU has prioritized rail connectivity as part of its Green Deal and energy security strategy, aiming to reduce aviation emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. Yet these new findings suggest policy alone may not drive modal shift unless accompanied by binding requirements for rail operators and airlines to offer joint ticketing.
The broader transition context is stark: while rail electrification and high-speed networks expand, the ticket-booking experience lags behind the seamless offerings of budget airlines. Without fixing this user-facing gap, EU climate targets for transport — which account for a quarter of bloc emissions — could remain out of reach.