Success of train in Spain falls mainly on the plane

THE train may have failed to take the strain in Britain, pitched against keen competition from budget airlines, but in Europe rail is on a roll.

Figures from Spain provide further evidence that internal air routes are under serious pressure as the fast rail links expand across the Continent.

Two years ago, nearly 90 per cent of the six million people travelling between Madrid and Barcelona went by air.

Now the number of train travellers on the route has surpassed air passengers, and the trajectory is ever upward.

Since a high-end, high-speed rail connection between Barcelona and Madrid opened in 2008, a 325-mile journey that takes about six hours by car can be completed in just two hours and 38 minutes, from city centre to city centre.

The shift has political and economic benefits for Spain, which like other European Union countries has set out to lower carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent over the next ten years. Emissions per passenger on a high-speed train are about a quarter of those generated by flying or driving.

But those who board the Alta Velocidad Espaola (AVE ) – or Spanish High Speed – are not solely motivated by green intentions. Like high-speed railways in France and China, Renfe – Spain's national train operator – has performed the ultimate green sleight of hand by simply making the low-emissions option more comfortable and convenient.

"Since the day this train opened, I have never, never set foot on the plane again," said Carlos Martnez, 31, a lawyer who travels between Madrid and Barcelona twice a week. "Why would anyone fly?"

Here, perhaps more than in any other country, the new high-speed train service has consciously set out to turn traditional stereotypes about train travel and plane travel on their head.

Unlike the French, who sought to maintain a low-cost image as their trains gained speed, the Spanish rail operators decided to go upscale, said Josep Valls, a professor of marketing at the Esade Business School in Barcelona.

The train tickets cost as much as plane tickets – about 130 one way at the moment – although cheaper advance fares can be found on the internet. AVE offers assigned reclining seats, computer outlets, movies, headsets, good food and even gloved attendants.

"It is not about the environment, it's that people are very satisfied by these trains," Professor Valls said. "This is really changing the paradigm of travel for Europe." Other AVE lines connect Madrid with Seville and with Mlaga.

He predicted that eventually all European routes under 800 miles would be dominated by train travel, with a high-speed train travelling, say, from Barcelona to Paris – 520 miles as the crow or plane flies – in a little over four hours.

Prof Valls said that Spaniards had so decisively opted for the comfort and convenience of trains that traditional airlines might not be able to compete. The number of flights between Madrid and Mlaga has halved since the route between those cities opened in 2007.

The main factor allowing planes to keep flying between Barcelona and Madrid was the arrival of extremely low-cost, no-frills, cattle-car flights on the route this year, Prof Valls said. Booking well in advance now on some budget airlines can cost less than 10.

Transport emissions in European Union countries grew 26 per cent from 1990 to 2007, according to the European Environment Agency. Aviation emissions have grown particularly rapidly, and nowhere faster than in Spain – a premier destination for low-cost airlines – where they more than doubled in that period.

A further indication of a forthcoming global shift in domestic travel has been the fact that the United States is finally preparing to invest in bullet trains – over 50 years since the first commercial route was launched in Japan. President Obama has set aside $8 billion (more than 5bn) in federal stimulus money for investments in high-speed rail.

By 2020 half of Spain's $160bn transport budget will go to rail travel.

Adding to rail's competitive advantage, European environmental policies are likely to force an increase in airline ticket prices over the next few years.

Beginning in 2012, the biggest polluters among the airlines will be required to buy extra credits to "pay" for their carbon dioxide emissions.

For many converts to the AVE, there is simply no going back to flying; they particularly do not miss flight delays and the long lines at airport security checkpoints.

The rail tickets remind passengers to be onboard a mere two minutes before departure, and the only security procedure involves passing large suitcases though a scanner.

"I can get to the station ten minutes before it leaves," said Rafael Fernndez, a logistics manager for Fujitsu returning to Madrid on an AVE train. "This has changed the way I travel."