Come on, about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions come from flying. Amd that's done almost exclusively by the common folks, not the tiny minority. A kilometre by train causes 99 % less (electric) or about 70 % less (diesel) emissions per kilometre than an airplane does, and is a viable way to travel, but people still fly. Because they prefer being assholes and kil their own children if not doing.so would inconvenience them evem just a little.
The problem will always be price. So travelling to another country? I'm in the UK so it's a bit limiting. But if I want to go to Paris. I picked a week a month away from now. So it should be too expensive, or too cheap. By eurostar the cheapest option is £95, by plane £74.
But the same is true of car vs train in the UK and it's frankly at ridiculous levels. If I want to go into London from where I live (which is in a home county) it will cost £40 for a return on the same day. However if I drive, even in an older car that is subject to ULEZ. Then the cost is:
£12.50 ULEZ £15 congestion charge (although really, there's plenty of places you can park outside the congestion zone but very central to pick up the tube to avoid this) £5 worth of fuel. Parking, depends. At the weekend there are many places you can reliably park for free.
It's always cheaper than the train. But, notably if you park outside of the congestion charge zone, it's significantly cheaper. If you're two people travelling or in a ULEZ compliant vehicle it's entirely a no-brainer. Here's an interesting point. People are happy to park inside the ULEZ but outside the congestion charge zone and take the tube. Do you know why? It's because coincidentally the last train stations outside the congestion charge zone are also the same station the fare is suddenly 2x the fare from the first station inside. Travelling within London on the tube, train and bus is affordable and mostly convenient. Getting in from outside, even a mile outside is not.
They need to fix this. The average person votes with their wallet, with convenience coming second. Train travel needs to be affordable and convenient. If it's cheaper and convenient to use, people will use it and leave their cars at home.
But look, CO2 per mile is way more in a private plane. We really need to be putting MUCH more into stopping that. Just because the total from the normal folk is less than the rich boys (and girls), doesn't mean the onus is on the rest of us. Per person they are doing a lot more to destroy the planet than the hoi polloi.