Air-Rail Alliances Simplify Travel and Support a Greener Planet

by Philip Mayer, Association Volunteer Blogger

An Air-Rail Alliance allows a traveler to book part of a journey on a train and another leg of the journey on an airplane. These alliances, which have existed since the early 2000s, offer convenience for the traveler, increase train usage, and allow airlines to reach smaller cities than their networks can usually reach. These alliances also incentivize train ridership over personal automobile or air travel to smaller cities, which offers major environmental benefits.

Dedicated service is the most attractive service to travelers. Connections and seat reservations are guaranteed, luggage is checked all the way through to the final destination, and very often train passengers with airline connections will be given dedicated train cars. Dedicated service is often not available to and from every airport and train station.

An example of a dedicated service is both American Airlines and Air France offer direct connections from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport to Brussells-Midi train station, with Air France also offering a connection to Strasbourg.

Entire Network Access, more commonly referred to as Rail&Fly allows customers to book separate rail and air tickets for the same journey. The connection and rail seat reservation are not guaranteed, and train passengers with air tickets are not given a dedicated train car. However, the train tickets are very frequently heavily discounted or even free. If enrolled in a frequent flyers program, passengers will typically accrue air miles while riding the train if the tickets were booked through an air-rail alliance.

Railway companies in Germany, France, and Taiwan offer Rail&Fly partnerships with several domestic and international airlines between rail destinations throughout their nations.

Air-Rail Alliances also offer environmental benefits. The partnerships encourage people to ride the train instead of either driving or taking short-haul airline flights. European airlines were heavily incentivized to enter Air-Rail Alliances with the adoption of European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) which was founded in 2005 and is now in its fourth phase. The EU-ETS penalizes airlines based on their CO2 emissions. The Dutch airline KLM reduced its Brussels to Amsterdam service from five flights to four by replacing one service with a train journey. This journey typically has less than 45 minutes in the air.

Air-Rail Alliances are more easily initiated in cities where the airport is in easy access with the train station. Vienna, Sydney, and Japan’s Narita Airport are good examples of this.

This seems to be the main challenge for Air-Rail Alliances in the United States. United Airlines did offer dedicated service out of Newark International Airport to Philadelphia, Stamford, CT, New Haven, CT, and Wilmington, DE, but this service ended in February 2021. Currently, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines offer Rail&Fly services in other nations, most commonly Germany and the Netherlands.

In 2013, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a feasibility study on Air-Rail Alliances in the US. Distance between airports and train stations did seem to be the primary challenge. “Air-rail connectivity may provide a range of mobility, economic, and environmental benefits, though the financial costs of building these connections could be substantial.”

With increased demand for passenger train travel in the United States, perhaps this hurdle can be addressed and Air-Rail Alliances can be implemented for travelers in this nation.