According to a study conducted by a green organization, railway tickets in Poland are much cheaper than air travel throughout Europe.
Moreover, the survey, which focused on 112 itinerary details in Europe, revealed that the costs difference between train and air travel is second most noticeable in Spain, where train fares are 3.9 times higher than airline fares. Spain is followed by the United Kingdom, which has the highest price difference, with train tickets costing about four times as much as air travel. In addition, in Belgium and France, air travel is 2.6 times less expensive than train rates, followed by Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, and Sweden.

The analysis also shows that flights are cheaper than trains in 79 out of 112 itineraries studied, with trains being roughly two times as costly as flights.

However, flying may have an effect on the environment that is up to 80 times greater than that of using a train. The flying cost between Barcelona and London is the highest for a journey that departs on the same day, with rail tickets costing up to 30 times higher. Railway tickets between London and Bratislava averaged 15.5 times when compared to flights, followed by those between Budapest and Brussels, Madrid and Brussels, Valencia and Paris, and Rome and Vienna.

Train tickets in Western European countries like France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom are more expensive than those in Central Europe, where they may sometimes be cheaper than flying. Trains in developing nations are often slower, less frequent, have fewer connections, and provide less amenities than their Western counterparts.

Even while flights on longer routes are more expensive, the most popular short-haul routes in the area continue to be Amsterdam–London, London–Edinburgh, and Toulouse–Paris, all of which can be completed in around four to four and a half hours by rail.

Seventy-nine percent of the itineraries listed in the research are serviced by low-cost carriers, and the remaining transfer flights serviced by low-cost carriers are the least expensive flight alternatives.

Transfer flights are predicted to be 10 times more polluting than direct flights, which has a significant effect on the environment.