One Winner in the Aviation Crisis: Europe’s Railways (Source: Progressive Fix)

Link: One Winner in the Aviation Crisis: Europe's Railways | Progressive Fix

One Winner in the Aviation Crisis: Europe’s Railways
April 20, 2010
Mark Reutter


PPI Fellow Mark Reutter is the former editor of Railroad History and author of Making Steel: Sparrows Point and the Rise and Ruin of American Industrial Might (2005, rev. ed.).

by Mark Reutter

The media’s blanket coverage of the travel chaos gripping Europe has overlooked just one thing — fast and frequent trains have gotten hundreds of thousands of travelers to their destinations safely and on time while airplanes sat on the tarmac.

In fact, if there’s any winner in the crisis that began when a cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano drifted over the continent, it’s Europe’s railways. They have operated with few disruptions at the same time air flight was grounded by authorities over safety concerns.

Since trains handle a large portion of commercial traffic between many cities, the average European has not been hurt by the “transportation tsunami” breathlessly described by CNN and other media outlets.

Travelers most affected by the air ban have been international flyers, such as British tourists coming back from Easter vacations in the Mediterranean and passengers on transatlantic flights, who couldn’t land in northern Europe, Scandinavia or the British Isles.

Since last Thursday, high-speed Eurostar trains have been the only direct link between London and the rest of the world. Running through the English “chunnel,” Eurostar has added trains to its daily roster of 32 trains to and from Paris and 18 trains to and from Brussels.

An estimated 50,000 passengers took the trains between Thursday and Sunday, a 30-percent jump from normal bookings. Eurostar’s website says trains are sold out through the end of this week, but that special service will be added to accommodate still-stranded air passengers.

Elsewhere in Europe, trains have been packed. A EuroCity train from Italy to France was so crowded over the weekend that people could barely squeeze through the doors. A Swiss Federal Railways spokesman said trains have been reconfigured with twice as many cars as normal to handle the increased patronage.

Although airports across Europe are preparing to resume limited flights today along “safe air corridors,” it will take days, if not a full week, before normal operations are reestablished, according to aviation officials.

Much will depend on the status of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. It continues to spew out thick clouds of ash, whose microscopic shards of rock, glass and sand can stop jet engines by melting and congealing in turbines.

The volcano’s unexpected activity — leading to the biggest flight ban in aviation history — is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of air travel and the necessity of having solid transportation alternatives in a crisis.