When trains are pricier than planes, there’s a heavy social, financial and environmental cost

Train leaving Montreux railway station on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Photograph: David Bagnall/Alamy

If I want to get from Barcelona to London, I face what should be a simple choice: either I take the plane, and pump out about 280kg of pollution that heats the planet, or the train, and spew just 8kg.

That is not the calculation travellers are presented with, nor is it the one they care about most. Because while the plane ticket would cost €15, an analysis from Greenpeace found this summer, the train ticket would cost a galling €389.