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> And flights costing 29 EUR are simply a market failure That’s actually the market working as intended. In the case of flights you have competition which driv
by dsnr 6y ago
> And flights costing 29 EUR are simply a market failure
That’s actually the market working as intended. In the case of flights you have competition which drives the price down, in the case of trains you mostly have a monopoly of the national operator which increases prices each year (DB, Germany). Train prices are prohibitively high, and when I face the choice I always end up driving vs taking the train (the price advantage grows larger with the number of people travelling).
- makapuf 6y agoSometimes those 29€ are just the emerged part if the iceberg, with local airports subsidies which distorts said market.
- makapuf 6y agoIf you look at this article[0], the subsidies can be 100€ per passenger [0] https://www.lechotouristique.com/article/il-y-a-trop-d-aeroports-en-france,62131 https://www.lechotouristique.com/article/il-y-a-trop-d-aerop... (french)
- mschuster91 6y ago> Train prices are prohibitively high They didn't need to be, the problem is that Deutsche Bahn is expected to be profitable since two decades (as a result of the failed attempts to privatize it) - and that includes the cost of physical infrastructure, which is enormous. An airport however is cheap to build (okay, jokes like the BER aside) and operate, not to mention subsidies for regional airports whereas the EU has been pushing for de-subsidizing and liberalization of the railways for decades now.
- gpvos 6y agoNo. It is externalities not properly being accounted for in the cost.
- anigbrowl 6y agoThe basic problem is that the market does a poor job of accounting for externalities, so indirect costs (pollution, subsidies) are dumped across whole populations over a long period, thus becoming effectively invisible, while profits are scrupulously accounted for and distributed to a far smaller group of recipients.