The main advantage of rail is capacity, not price. Roughly speaking, a railway station can handle 10x more passengers than an airport using 10x less space. In a

The main advantage of rail is capacity, not price. Roughly speaking, a railway station can handle 10x more passengers than an airport using 10x less space. In a densely populated area with a high passenger volume, it's not possible to build enough airports to handle intercity passenger traffic. Capacity also means flexibility. When the service is frequent enough, you don't have to plan in advance. You can buy the tickets just before departure for a reasonable price. You don't have to adjust your schedule to make it to the specific train, as you can also take the next one 30 minutes later. Different modes of transport have their own strengths and weaknesses. Switching to another mode never makes things unambiguously better. If you want to switch to another mode, you also have to change your habits to take full advantage of the strengths of the new mode.