Europe’s rural disconnect

04 April 2025

When it comes to transport infrastructure, rural areas are often overlooked and become difficult to access in terms of both travel time and cost. In Denmark, this reality came into the spotlight when a new passenger tax of up to 50 Danish kroner (€6.70) led to Ryanair’s exodus from the country's second- and third-biggest airports this week. The low-cost airline has announced similar measures in several other EU countries, also as a response to local taxation.

We know that flying less and jumping on a train to reach your destination is the greener option, especially as the climate crisis rages on. This is, however, often easier said than done. Danish public transport companies have been struggling for years to keep bus routes going, and trains are more scarce outside bigger cities, meaning that decisions like Ryanair’s intensify the connectivity issue, in turn threatening local development.

This urban-rural divide is an issue elsewhere, too, such as the Netherlands, Germany, and Lithuania. In Germany, a Greenpeace report determined that 25% of Germans have poor access to local public transport, despite the country’s goal of doubling passenger numbers by 2030 compared to 2019.

In search of an individual solution, those able to drive often turn to cars. However, the issue is multifaceted; inadequate public transport also increases social exclusion and poverty in rural communities, according to a 2022 Welsh policy review. As the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations has argued, better rural public transport is also a question of better EU integration in places like the Western Balkans.