Almost half of EU’s busiest flight routes are ‘hard or impossible’ to book on trains – report

A Frecciarossa train in Milan. The study found popular flight paths such as Barcelona-Milan could not be booked from any rail operator’s website. Photograph: Piero Cruciatti/AFP/Getty Images

Europe’s “stone age” system of booking train tickets makes it needlessly difficult for travellers to avoid polluting flights, a report has found.

Booking equivalent train tickets is “difficult or impossible” on almost half of the EU’s busiest international air routes, analysis from the Transport & Environment (T&E) thinktank shows.