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Comment by ekianjo | Hacker News Reader

> The EU should force a carbon tax on plane fuel for intra-EU flights and subsidize rail with the money.

You are aware that most of Europe produces electricity by burning fossil fuel right? So by all logic we should apply a strict carbon tax on rail as well.

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Speaking of logic: Trains are way more energy efficient than planes. So even with the same "strict carbon tax", it would be cheaper to go by train and better for the environment alas.

Except that train ticket prices are artificially set in the first place since Rail is heavily subsidized in most of Europe.

An actual carbon tax on carbon would tax both trains and planes fairly. Planes use much more co2 per capita and so the result would be comparatively cheaper trains nonetheless.

Though I don't think most trains are electric, and I think they do have a fuel tax.

By usage, most trains used in Europe probably are electric. It makes sense to invest in electrification where usage is most intense.

For example, in Britain "In 2006, 40%—3,062 miles (4,928 km) of the British rail network was electrified, and 60% of all rail journeys were by electric traction (both by locomotives and multiple units)".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_electrification_in_Gre...

In Europe most trains are electric. Even where trains run on diesel they are probably 10x as fuel efficient as flying.

I don’t think it’s an issue given how little CO2 is emitted by trains per passenger/km, and hopefully the electricity used already has CO2 taxes on it. Plane fuel doesn’t.

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