Cost analysis
Is it cheaper to fly or take the train in Europe?
Short hop, booked a few weeks out, decent high-speed line: train. Last minute, or a long diagonal across the continent: fly. Airport transfers and bags are why the €39 flight so often isn't.
The rule people actually use on travel forums is pretty stable. Paris–Lyon, Madrid–Barcelona, Milan–Rome: book the train a few weeks ahead and it is usually cheaper and faster, city centre to city centre. Stockholm–Rome, London–Barcelona: the plane wins on price and time, and it is not close.
A €39 flight is rarely a €39 journey. Add the train or bus to the airport, a checked bag, an hour in security, and the ride from the arrival airport into town, and that fare often doubles. A train ticket is closer to the real cost: you board in town, you get off in town, bags usually come with you, and you show up minutes before departure rather than 90.
So ask "which journey is cheaper?" not "which ticket is cheaper?" Book early on a good rail corridor and the train usually wins outright. Book late, or travel a route where the rail link is slow or indirect, and flying pulls ahead. The table below is our pick for every pair we cover — tap through for times, fares and CO₂.
Every route, our pick
Each pick weighs fare, time and hassle — not just the headline ticket. Tap any pair for the full breakdown.
| Route | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Copenhagen → Hamburg | Train wins | Take the train. It's the simpler door-to-door choice for almost everyone. |
| Amsterdam → Paris | Train wins | Thalys/Eurostar puts you in central Paris in three hours, hands down. |
| Amsterdam → London | Train wins | Eurostar wins on time, comfort, and the bit where you don't go through Schiphol. |
| Paris → London | Train wins | The Eurostar is the most under-debated decision in European travel. |
| Paris → Lyon | Train wins | TGV in under two hours. The flight exists for nostalgia reasons. |
| Paris → Marseille | Train wins | Three hours to the Mediterranean without a single boarding pass. |
| Paris → Amsterdam | Train wins | Reverse of the easy one. Still easy. |
| Berlin → Hamburg | Train wins | Two hours flat between two city centers. There's no flight to argue with. |
| Berlin → Prague | Train wins | The four-hour ride along the Elbe valley is the trip, not the cost. |
| Vienna → Budapest | Train wins | Two and a half hours through Hungary's plains for the price of a haircut. |
| Zurich → Milan | Train wins | The Gotthard run is one of the great train journeys in Europe. Book a window. |
| Zurich → Paris | Train wins | Four hours flat on the TGV Lyria. Comfortable, civilized, central. |
| Milan → Rome | Train wins | Three hours on Frecciarossa. The plane is for people who haven't tried it. |
| Madrid → Barcelona | Train wins | Two and a half hours on the AVE. The shuttle flight is a relic. |
| Brussels → Amsterdam | Train wins | Under two hours direct, hourly. Flying it borders on absurd. |
| London → Amsterdam | Train wins | Direct Eurostar, St Pancras to Amsterdam Centraal in four hours. The reverse of the easy call. |
| London → Edinburgh | Train wins | Four hours twenty on the LNER, King's Cross to Waverley, straight through the middle of both cities. |
| Copenhagen → Stockholm | Depends | Five hours station-to-station, or one in the air. The answer is what you're doing in Stockholm. |
| Amsterdam → Berlin | Depends | A long train day, or a short flight with the usual airport tax. Call it a tie. |
| Berlin → Munich | Depends | Sprinter ICE has narrowed it, but the plane still wins on raw time. |
| Berlin → Vienna | Depends | Sleeper or eight-hour day train. Book the Nightjet. |
| Paris → Nice | Depends | Six hours on the TGV down the length of France, or ninety minutes over it. Depends what the trip is for. |
| Seville → Barcelona | Depends | Five and a half hours direct on the AVE, or under two in the air. Both drop you centrally; only one eats the day. |
| Munich → Prague | Depends | Around five and a half hours on the ALEX through Bavaria and Bohemia, or an hour in the air plus the usual overhead. |
| Stockholm → Milan | Flight wins | Two and a half days by rail vs. a 2h45 flight. Fly. |
| London → Barcelona | Flight wins | Eurostar plus TGV plus AVE is a beautiful day; the flight is two hours. |
| Madrid → Rome | Flight wins | Two hours in the air or a multi-day rail puzzle via Marseille and Milan. |
| Stockholm → Rome | Flight wins | Three hours flying vs. two and a half days of trains. There's no contest. |
New city pairs go up as we research them. Each pick is checked again about every quarter.
When flying is actually cheaper
On these trips the plane usually wins on both price and total time. Adding the airport trip does not flip it.
- Long diagonals. Once you are crossing about 1,000 km or two-plus countries — Stockholm to Rome, Madrid to Vienna — rail is a full day or an overnight, and a direct flight is cheaper and much faster.
- Booking tonight. Walk-up fares on premium high-speed lines can be brutal. Budget airlines sometimes still have cheap seats. Booked the night before, the plane often wins on price alone.
- No decent rail link. Where there is no high-speed line and the journey needs two or three changes, the train loses the city-centre advantage even over medium distances.
- Islands and water. If the train needs a ferry or a long detour, fly.
When the train wins anyway
On most short and medium European hops the train wins the moment you stop comparing tickets and start comparing journeys.
- City centre to city centre. Main stations sit in town. Airports sit 20–40 minutes and often €10–20 outside it, at both ends — a cost and a delay that never appears on the flight's price tag.
- Bags, and no 90-minute buffer. Most rail fares include luggage. You arrive minutes before departure, not an hour-plus for check-in and security.
- Time you can use. A train seat has a table, a window, usually a plug and wifi. Three hours of working or reading beats a shorter flight chopped up by transfers, queues and airplane mode.
- About 90% less CO₂. A rail trip typically emits around 90% less carbon than the equivalent short-haul flight — the biggest per-trip cut most travellers can actually make.
- Fewer ways to lose the day. A delayed train still usually dumps you in the centre. A missed flight or a strike-hit airport can cost you the afternoon.
Common questions
The questions people actually type.
For short and medium journeys booked in advance on a good high-speed corridor, the train is usually cheaper once airport transfers, bags and your time are counted — even when the plane ticket looks cheaper at first. For long cross-continent trips, or anything booked at the last minute, flying is generally cheaper. Shorter distance, earlier booking: more often the train.
Both are among the safest ways to travel; for a normal trip the difference is not worth worrying about. Aviation and European rail both have excellent records per passenger-kilometre. Trains cancel less often for weather than short-haul flights, and disruption usually means a delay rather than a lost day.
London to Paris is the clearest train win. Eurostar is city centre to city centre in about two and a half hours; the equivalent flight adds long transfers to airports well outside both cities, plus check-in and security. Booked a few weeks ahead the Eurostar is frequently cheaper on total cost and almost always faster door to door. Only a real last-minute trip tips it toward flying.
Book early — advance rail fares come out weeks or months ahead and are far cheaper than walk-up. Travel off-peak, skip Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons, and check split tickets or regional operators on longer routes. Compare the whole city-to-city cost against flying, not just the two fares.