The effect of substitution between air and railway transport on the level of CO2 emissions

Various studies examined substitution between the airplane and high-speed rail (HSR) and the consequences of this effect on the environment. This paper performed an empirical analysis in order to measure this substitution by using prices of air and railway tickets and the number of air and railway passengers as a proxy and determined its effect on the level of CO2 emissions in Germany, France, Italy, the UK, and the US. The substitution proxy that was measured by the ratio of ticket prices had a negative effect on the level of CO2 emissions only in the US, whereas, the substitution proxy measured by the ratio of the number of passengers had a negative effect on the level of CO2 emissions only in Italy and in the UK.