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Comment by ogre_codes | Hacker News Reader

It was originally supposed to be domestic flights under 4 hours which would be a much bigger area. This feels a bit like a token victory.

Consider for a moment, the chances you’d fly if a train trip was less than an hour are pretty near zero. Even at 90 minutes, it’s pretty unlikely you’d fly. Every mile less than exactly 2.5 hours makes it less likely you’d fly regardless. So it’s essentially banning a small number of flights which might take 1.5-2.5 hours by train. How many airports are situated that distance apart? Is there a lot of domestic traffic between La Mans and Paris? I’m not familiar with France, but it really feels like this won’t affect a whole lot.

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It may be more about establishing this kind of regulation as the norm so it can be strengthened later. That way changes are merely incremental and to an existing system. It may be more politically viable to go that route and tie each increase to some concrete climate goal.

> However, there will probably be less impact than you might first expect. For one thing, connecting flights won't be affected, so international travelers won't have to worry about having to navigate the train system from Charles De Gaulle International airport.

> In fact, French lawmakers are only proposing to cancel five routes in total. Yes, just five: Paris Orly to Bordeaux, Paris Orly to Lyon, Paris Orly to Nantes, Paris Orly to Rennes, and Lyon to Marseille.

> the chances you’d fly if a train trip was less than an hour are pretty near zero

Why is this?

I'm genuinely curious. I've never been on (or even seen!) a train, nor have I ever flown.

Airports are rarely next to your starting or ending locations, so flying usually requires extra ground transport on either end. This transportation, and the transfer time easily add an hour. Train stations are often close to the city centre, and better integrated into the local transportation networks.

In the airport, there is processing time before boarding - check-in, security, gate check, etc. This time adds another 45 minute buffer before departure. Boarding a train can be as simple as arriving at the terminal and walking onto the train.

All of this.

To be honest, I think my estimate may have been generous, I just don’t know France.

In the US, I wouldn’t even consider flying unless it was closer to 5 hours. Anything shorter than that I’d just drive. But not knowing France at all, I was being I think generous.

We have high speed train. Paris to Bordeaux (~500 km flying distance) is 2H train, 1H flight.

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