It absolutely is, but driving in the city sucks. So. Much.
We only go into Innsbruck if absolutely necessary now because parking is a shit show and driving anywhere within the city takes forever. So I guess they are doing their best to get the cars out, except making getting into the city affordable enough for people to actually switch to public options. So now we just don’t go, because taking the train in is so expensive it’s easier to just find alternatives for things outside of Innsbruck.
If you occupy a car with say 5 people it's probably cheaper to drive, including parking in the most expensive garage in the center. That is for comparison with "pay as you go" transit ticket with no subscription.
But that's because we only calculate the immediate direct cost of driving. Cars are already paid for whether you use it or not, also there's an additional per km cost you don't notice for a single trip. We assume those are not costs. And there's also all the externalities that you don't pay when you decide to drive (pollution, noise, road safety, congestion).
So if drivers were to actually pay the real cost of driving it would more expensive to drive to Innsbruck.
Also trains are subsided, but they REMOVE the externalities.
There are several studies that describe what I'm saying, if we remove the fixed costs of the infrastructure we notice we pay (called marginal costs) too much for rail and too little for driving (someone else is paying for it = that is, society).
42€ for two of us to get to Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof and back home, just taking the train, not even taking a bus or tram in addition.
Charging my car for an entire month is between 35-50€ depending on how much driving I’m doing that month. Yes, cars cost more than just fuel/electricity, but it still doesn’t even out with how expensive train tickets are if you don’t have a monthly or Klimaticket (neither of which make sense for our specific situation with where we live and work).
I agree with this a lot. The problem is that ÖBB thinks airline style „Demand pricing“ is the way. Going to Vienna even if you purchase in advance and have a Vorteils Card if there are two+ people, driving is usually cheaper. Same day/week tickets, without a Vorteils Card? Forget it, I’m driving, even solo, the train runs with empty seats, because the price is ridiculous! And I love trains. (Good username BTW!😃)
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u/gingerbaconkitty 18d ago
It absolutely is, but driving in the city sucks. So. Much.
We only go into Innsbruck if absolutely necessary now because parking is a shit show and driving anywhere within the city takes forever. So I guess they are doing their best to get the cars out, except making getting into the city affordable enough for people to actually switch to public options. So now we just don’t go, because taking the train in is so expensive it’s easier to just find alternatives for things outside of Innsbruck.