In a rapport the two organizations compare the international travel behavior of business people at 22 companies between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023. The train was chosen in 80 percent of trips up to 400 kilometers; in 2019, the last year before corona, this was 52 percent.
The increase is proportionately the largest in the 400 to 700 kilometer segment. Four years ago, 1 percent of business travelers boarded the train for the longer distance, but in the measured period up to July 1 of this year, this had risen to 21 percent.
“On routes up to 400 kilometers, the plane can very well be replaced by the train,” says program director of Nature & Environment Rob van Tilburg in a statement. “It is great to see that many companies are taking the step towards more sustainable business travel. The train causes less nuisance, the air remains cleaner and it causes less climate damage.”
High speed train
Many flights within Europe take place over relatively short distances, such as from Amsterdam to London, Paris or Frankfurt. For these trips, the high-speed train is “a good alternative,” says director Hugo Houppermans of the Coalition for Different Travel. “The growing demand for train travel from the business community provides energy to accelerate. As a company, you can do this by putting the train first in the booking program. Companies: sit down with your intermediary and the booking platform and make choosing the train the norm.”
Anders Reizen says that planes are still often chosen, especially for business trips to London. “Even employers who promised to make the train the standard for distances of up to 700 kilometers still opt for the plane to London more often,” the report says.
“Employers and their Travel Management Companies (TMCs) can do something about this themselves. For example, it appears that within booking systems that companies and TMCs use, the train is often impossible to book, or much more difficult than the plane. This means people are unnecessarily choosing the plane instead of the train. The train as a sustainable choice should be the easiest to book,” says the Coalition for Different Travel.
