Media: Europe’s “Stone Age” train booking system hampers sustainable travel

Europe’s “stone age” train ticket booking system is preventing passengers from choosing trains over flights and slowing the transition to more environmentally friendly transport, as highlighted by a study by the think tank Transport & Environment.

Experts note that on nearly half of the busiest international air routes within the EU, it is either difficult or impossible to purchase equivalent train tickets online. In some cases, passengers are unable to book a single integrated ticket for an entire journey or are forced to use the websites of individual rail operators, The Guardian reports.

For example, routes such as Lisbon–Madrid and Barcelona–Milan cannot be fully booked through standard rail platforms, while on connections like Paris–Rome and Amsterdam–Milan, tickets are often sold by only one operator.

According to the study, in 20% of international routes it is impossible to purchase a single unified ticket, while in 59% of cases alternative travel options are not displayed at all in booking systems. Major operators, including Deutsche Bahn and SNCF, reportedly do not offer competitors’ tickets in the vast majority of cases.

Georgia Whitaker, a rail campaigner at T&E and author of the report, said it “almost feels a bit silly” that an inefficient and outdated system is hindering climate action.

“In the world we live in you can get pretty much most things, for better or worse, with one click,” she said. “When you can’t do that to travel by rail – despite people’s best intentions – we are not going to see the full potential being utilised.”

Aviation remains one of the most difficult sectors of the economy to decarbonise through technological solutions, while its planet-warming emissions are expected to rise sharply as the industry aims to double passenger traffic by 2050.

The European Commission is expected to present a package of measures on May 13 aimed at creating a unified ticketing system to simplify rail travel across Europe and improve its competitiveness against air transport.

By Jeyhun Aghazada