Railroads Greenpeace calls for more long-distance trains from Zurich and Geneva

Greenpeace is calling for more European long-distance trains between major cities: According to an analysis by the environmental organization, there is the potential for 15 more train connections from Zurich - and as many as 25 in Geneva.

Greenpeace is calling on the federal government and SBB to improve rail connections with European cities. In general, European governments should give priority to rail transport over air transport, the environmental organization announced on Tuesday.

To this end, air travel concessions should be abolished and a kerosene tax introduced for airlines. There also needs to be more economy tickets for trains and a simpler booking system, for example via a pan-European booking platform.

Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe analyzed a total of 990 routes between 45 major European cities, according to the environmental organization. Direct trains operated on only twelve percent of the routes, while direct flights were offered on 69 percent. According to Greenpeace, a direct day or night train with a journey time of less than 18 hours could be operated on 419 routes (42 percent) with the current infrastructure.

The cities with the most direct train connections to other major cities were Vienna (17), Munich (15), Berlin (14), Paris and Zurich (13 each). Geneva only had four direct connections. The difference between Zurich and Geneva was particularly marked in terms of night train connections: There were nine in Zurich and none in Geneva.