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IIRC taking a single long flight per year (~5 hours in the air) is equivalent to commuting an hour by car each day (regional fuel efficiency notwithstanding). Airplanes burn the most fuel during the take off stage which makes short haul flights particularly bad. Replacing those flights with night trains and high speed rail would be an easy win for the environment.

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That sounds slightly excessive if flying long-haul is about on par with solo car travel per passenger per km. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49349566

Agreed with rest of points, it's a shame flying is so much cheaper. In the end it doesn't matter whether something is available if it's too expensive for mainstream use.

Furthermore, while there are few practical alternatives to planes for intercontinental travel, we already have the means for fast, affordable, comfortable travel at the regional level (trains). So it makes a lot of sense to target short-haul air travel in densely populated areas for replacement by trains.

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