France bans short flights. Passengers have an alternative

This week, a ban on short-haul flights came into force in France where rail travel is possible. French Transport Minister Clément Beaune described the move as “a necessary step and a strong symbol in the policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Ban on short flights in France. what alternative?

The new law – according to CNBC – assumes that internal flights will be prohibited, as long as the route can be covered by train in less than 2 hours and 30 minutes. Importantly, there must be enough trains and they must run frequently so that travelers using this form of transport can spend at least eight hours at their destination. As a result, only three routes linking Paris-Orly airport to Bordeaux, Nantes and Lyon have been closed at present.

The French transport minister emphasizes that this is the first such ban in the world, which is in line with the government’s policy of “encouraging the use of means of transport that emit less greenhouse gases”.

There is no enthusiasm

The minister’s enthusiasm, however, is not universally shared across the Seine. As Interia.pl writes, President Emmanuel Macron is critical in this matter, who softened the original concept, which assumed a ban on flights for which there is an alternative train journey that takes up to four hours. Attention is also drawn to the fact that passengers voluntarily give up planes in favor of high-speed trains, so the liquidated routes have simply ceased to be popular, and the ban is just an empty declaration.

The WWF describes the environmental footprint of aircraft as “one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions driving global climate change” and traveling by plane is currently “the most carbon-intensive activity an individual can do”.