<story><title>France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-airlines-tax-idUSKCN1U412B</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>keiferski</author><text>I am actually surprised that short-distance flights aren&amp;#x27;t taxed more in Western Europe. The train infrastructure in France is world class and can get you from Paris (North-Central part of the country) to Marseille (Southeast), a distance of about 500 miles, in 3 hours.&lt;p&gt;For Americans, this would be roughly equivalent to go from Boston to Washington D.C. (a trip that takes 7-10+ hours)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bengalister</author><text>Train infrastructure in France is not premium anymore, like our health system.
Sure if you compare to North America like Canada, it is still better. I took the Via rail train in Canada last year from Toronto to Montreal,  seats were spacious, good catering, but the journey was long and trains outdated. As for the price it was not crazy expensive but not cheap.&lt;p&gt;The high speed train in France (TGV) is really expensive if you cannot get any discount compared to flights. I live near Nice in France and leaving my car in the airport parking lots is often more expensive than the flights themselves, even for 3 days !
For instance a one-way flight from Lille to Nice with Easyjet (around 900km) can cost only 60 Euros, it can be 100Euros back and forth.
Also trains in France are more subject to strikes and delays. Well any mean of transportation in France is subject to strikes but the occurrence is greater with trains.&lt;p&gt;Again the French government thinks that creating a French tax will pave the road to an European one. I highly doubt so. French airports and airlines will suffer from it compared to their European equivalent, and if an European tax is created, it won&amp;#x27;t probably make the French tax disappear. France loves taxes, we see the results.&lt;p&gt;Again</text></comment>
<story><title>France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-airlines-tax-idUSKCN1U412B</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>keiferski</author><text>I am actually surprised that short-distance flights aren&amp;#x27;t taxed more in Western Europe. The train infrastructure in France is world class and can get you from Paris (North-Central part of the country) to Marseille (Southeast), a distance of about 500 miles, in 3 hours.&lt;p&gt;For Americans, this would be roughly equivalent to go from Boston to Washington D.C. (a trip that takes 7-10+ hours)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>baud147258</author><text>The train infrastructure is not perfect, the biggest issue being travels not going to&amp;#x2F;from Paris: the lines aren&amp;#x27;t as good and there aren&amp;#x27;t a lot of high-speed lines.</text></comment>