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Why are flights in the UK so often cheaper than taking the train?
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2025
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I would love a genuine answer to this question with a proper analysis of costs, subsidies and profit margins, but this article ain't it. I would guess - but don't know - that the difference is mainly because the fixed infrastructure of a rail network consists of far more stuff that needs to be built, paid for and maintained than does an airline.
Also the emissions figure ("double") is way off - a domestic flight is something like 250g of CO2(e) per kilometre (per passenger) whereas a train is about 35g. Source.