Britons, Danes, French and Spaniards all more likely to see domestic rail travel as expensive than domestic air travel
The state of public transport is a perennial grumble in many parts of the world, with frustrated and delayed users often expecting that the grass is greener on the other side of the continent.
But is that the case? A new YouGov EuroTrack survey compares attitudes across Western Europe to rail services, as well as other forms of public transport.
Britons are the most likely to say the trains are expensive
Fully 91% of Britons consider train travel within the UK to be expensive, including 58% who deem it “very expensive”. This latter figure is far higher than in other countries.
Most other European nations surveyed also consider national train fares to be expensive, ranging from 83% in France to 53% in Spain.
Indeed, such is the state of things that Britons, Danes, French and Germans are all more likely to name national train travel as expensive than the other three forms of transport we asked about: domestic air travel, national bus travel, and driving. This remains the case even when accounting for higher “don’t know” rates for air travel (although under this measure air and train travel tie in Denmark).
Spaniards and Italians are most likely to brand driving as expensive.
Across the countries surveyed, bus travel is the least likely to be seen as costly, although Denmark stands out in this regard: 54% of Danes also consider bus travel to be expensive, compared to 25-35% in the other nations.
Britons are uniquely negative about train services outside of their local area
Of course, just because something is expensive does not mean that it is bad – indeed, you would typically hope the opposite!
And the results show that the countries most likely to say train services are expensive are also the most likely to say that local train services are good.
A majority of British, French and Danish people say that services in their local area are good, as do half of German people. This figure falls to 44% in Italy and 42% in Spain.
Most nations give similar answers when it comes to the state of train services in their country in general, with one notable exception: Britain. The British public are fully 22 points less likely to think that train services nationally are good (34%) than they are locally.
The same is true when it comes to bus services, with Britons far more likely to say local services are good (54%) than services in the rest of the country (39%). However, Britons are joined by Germans in this outlook, with similar numbers agreeing with each sentiment.
Another distinction within the data is the differing Spanish attitudes to bus and train services, with Spaniards notably more likely to bus services are good than train services both locally (19pts) and nationally (16pts).
What do you think about the state of public transport, whether it's better to travel by train or plane, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photos: Getty
