Possible alternatives to air traffic: high-speed trains

A total of 1.6 million trips between Amsterdam and Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris and Amsterdam and London could be by high-speed train rather than by air. That amounts to 16,000 flights annually (assuming 100 passengers per flight). As stated in the document ‘Possible Alternatives to Air Traffic: High-Speed Trains”, which was published by KiM Netherlands Institute for Transport Policy Analysis, this is the equivalent of 2.5 per cent of the estimated total number of flights at Schiphol in 2020. For travelling distances of up to 800 kilometres, the high-speed train could be a viable alternative to flying. Replacing ‘shorter’ flights would open up airport capacity that could then be filled with other flights. On balance, this would mean less need to invest in airport expansion. The study into replacing air traffic with other means of transport is part of a project called Long-Term Investigations at Schiphol (Lange Termijn Verkenningen Schiphol) and was carried out on assignment for the Directorate-General for Civil Aviation and Freight Transport (DGTL).