Trains from the UK to the Continent cannot be booked online as easily as airline tickets, a new study reveals.

A panel was asked to search for and simulate booking return airline and train tickets on the internet to Barcelona, Rome, Brussels and Munich.

Despite a 98% success rate for booking airline tickets, only 13 of the 40 journeys (33%) were successfully booked by train, meaning 27 (67%) journeys could not be booked.

For those that were able to book, it took almost double the amount of time to book a train ticket (average time = 11.9 minutes) as it did to book a flight (average time = 6.6 minutes).

Furthermore, the cost of train tickets to these destinations was on average, 70% more expensive than flying, according to the research into the state of train booking systems on the web by operator responsibletravel.com.

Brussels proved the easiest and cheapest of the four cities to reach by train with panellists taking an average of seven minutes to book a train ticket and the cost proving to be just 6% more than flying. But half of the panel still failed to make it to the booking point.

The company’s managing director Justin Francis, managing director, responsibletravel.com said: "To reduce our carbon emissions we need to start travelling more by train and less by plane in Europe.

“However, European rail travel is at present, infuriatingly difficult to book from the UK.

“Whilst there is a need for more thorough research into the problems, our poll has shown that it currently takes little more than five minutes to book a flight online to anywhere in Europe yet to book a train ticket to the same destination can be very challenging indeed.

"While improving rail infrastructure and finding ways to make train travel cheaper is essential in the longer term, there is also an urgent need to make what is currently available much easier to book for travellers.

"If we are going to work together for a lower carbon future for travel and tourism, this is an essential part of the solution."

* Panellists were asked to search for travel departing Friday, April 3 anytime after 15.00, returning on Sunday, April 5, anytime after 15.00.

Results for each city:

Barcelona