单选题 A growing number of intercity commuters are turning to rail from air. They take the Eurostar train, which runs hourly city center-to-city center from London to Paris or Brussels, with check-in 20 minutes before departure or just 10 minutes for first-class passengers.
Eurostar Group cun-ently holds 60% of the Paris-London market, with 92% of Eurostar trains arriving on time—24 percentage points better than aircraft times.
High-speed trains, which travel at 200 to 300 kilometers an hour, have cut trip times between Madrid and Seville to two hours and 15 minutes from six hours, and between Rome and Florence to one hour and 35 minutes from three hours.
On short journeys, rail clearly beats air travel for market share. High-speed rail wins 80% to 90% of market share of a route if the journey is under two hours, and 50% to 60% if travel takes two to three hours.
Some airlines, such as Air France, have opted to cooperate and not compete with rail on shorter routes. As of March 25, Thalys, a joint venture of the French, Belgian, Dutch and German railroads, will replace Air France's flights between Paris and Brussels with rail transport. Lutihansa AG said it would begin rail links between the Stuttgart rail station and Frankfurt airport as of March
1 in a pilot project with Deutsche Bahn AG, Germany's state-owned railroad.
Simon McNamara, manager of infrastructure and environment for the European Regions Airline Association, which represents 82 regional airlines, complains that air and rail cannot compete fairly unless rail subsidies stop.
On average, state support represented 38% of subsidized rail companies' income in 1997.
"Railways' subsidies put them at a huge competitive advantage," Mr. McNamara said. "It just isn't
a level playing field. "
But not everything is fast on high-speed rail. Travelers complain about tardy service in the dining cars, that cabins are shabby and there is not enough room. " The Eurostar was really cramped. We had to sit with our legs wrapped around each other," said Clive France, director of Internetics Co. , an Internet design company. "The train's decor looked tired, dated and the carpet was filthy. "
Catering and decor aside, the ease and speed of Europe's high-speed trains still looks likely to convert more passengers to rail in the future. Eventually, the various national high-speed networks will link up, leaving Europe with a rapid, significantly more efficient system across the whole continent.

单选题 The rail is winning customers over from the air because trains ______.

单选题 In Simon McNamara's view, the rail's success is really due to ______.

单选题 "It just isn't a level playing field" in Paragraph 7 probably means that the rail is ______.

单选题 Facing the challenge from the rail, air lines have chosen to ______.

单选题 The author of the passage looks forward to ______.