Opening of Ebbsfleet International station

When St Pancras and Ebbsfleet International opened their doors at the end of November, mainland Europe suddenly became a lot closer by rail. With the centre of Paris now just a few hours away by Eurostar, nervous air operators have begun to look over their shoulders and look for ways in which to retain their share of the lucrative cross channel market. Some reports are even suggesting that airlines will seek to set up their own London to Paris rail service to rival Eurostar when rail services in the EU are liberalised in 2010.

We shouldn’t get too carried away however. Heathrow alone still handles a couple of dozen or so flights to Paris a day and London City Airport which deals mainly with short haul business flights into Europe is looking to expand its operations. So the airlines aren’t exactly throwing in the towel yet; quite the opposite in fact.

We have to ask ourselves though just how sustainable this is in the long run. Airports like Heathrow will always have a role as a hub for long distance international flights, but there is absolutely no reason why airports in London should be providing as many flights as they are to destinations in the UK such as Manchester or Glasgow or to European cities such as Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Paris. Most of these journeys could and should be made by rail.

Sadly this is easier said than done at the moment. Booking rail tickets from Ebbsfleet to destinations beyond the Eurostar network for instance is a challenge. You can’t get tickets more than three months in advance and the cost of a ticket is often eye-wateringly expensive. The fact that you have to change in Paris, Brussels or Lille and wait for your connection also doesn’t help. Booking an air ticket to the same place on the other hand is usually far easier and perversely far less expensive. The main problem is that the main national rail companies in western Europe have never worked together. This is now changing and moves are now afoot to introduce a seamless ticketing system and also to resolve some of the infrastructural problems that are slowing down journey times. All of this is encouraging, but without a real push by our Government and other EU states, it looks like being a long time before it comes easier and more cost effective to take the train into most of Europe than the plane. If we want to reduce our reliance on air in Europe then it is a challenge that we surely cannot afford to pass up.