The train connection to the city of Lisbon is one of the six worst on the European continent, according to an assessment carried out by Greenpeace on the use of the railway in the countries of the community bloc.
According to the data, released this Tuesday, Lisbon, Athens (Greece), Pristina (Kosovo), Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Skopje (North Macedonia) and Tallinn (Estonia) are the six cities with the worst connections in Europe, without any connection with another major European city.
In contrast to these six cities, Vienna, the capital of Austria, is the city with the best rail connections, with 17 direct connections between the Austrian city and other capitals.
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In the analysis carried out by Greenpeace, Munich is the next city on the list, with 15 direct connections between that German city and another, then Berlin, with 14, Zurich and Paris, each with 13 direct connections.
However, the non-governmental organization warned that there is a widespread lack of use of the railway, in particular the lines. Although Vienna is the city with the most direct connections, trains only use 59% of the available routes, so there could be 12 more direct connections.
The other cities on this list could also gain more routes, for example, Munich and Berlin could have 14 more direct connections, Zurich 15 more and Paris 16 more.
Greenpeace reports that the number of passengers taking advantage of night trains to cross Europe has plummeted since 2001 and in 2019 there were just 445.
Therefore, the environmental organization urged the European Union and national authorities to rethink investments in transport and take advantage of the railway’s potential.
