The problem with trains is they're much more expensive than planes while being much slower. An EasyJet from Gatwick to Edinburgh at the convenient time of 3pm w

The problem with trains is they're much more expensive than planes while being much slower. An EasyJet from Gatwick to Edinburgh at the convenient time of 3pm will cost you £35. The train is £94. There are many reasons for this, but the biggest one is the need to purchase all the land along the route and the resulting natural monopoly that results. I'm almost certain they would be more expensive even if all the externalities of the two (such as CO2 emissions) were accounted for. Back of the envelope has that trip being around 40kg of CO2 (double that of national rail, apparently EasyJet have amazing CO2/passenger mile figures), even the $1000/ton CO2 removal tax doesn't make it more expensive than the train.