Trains vs Planes

Trains are my favourite mode of transport, for the comfort, the relaxation, the beautiful views and it's so good for the environment! At least relative to cars and air planes.

Or so I thought, now I'm a bit confused. On the one hand, Eurostar is so eco-friendly that Friends of the Earth has gone so far as to form a public partnership with them, and if that's not a seal of approval of ones environmental credentials I don't know what is. But on the other hand, a recently published report claims that Britain's long overdue joining of the high-speed train revolution will actually generate more CO2 than air planes! This was calculated for the London-Manchester route, over a period of 60 years. Trains going to Scotland will generate slightly less CO2 and some criticism has been made that they have not taken into account the carbon emission from winning car drivers over to the train but still, it looks a lot worse than I had always assumed!

As much as I love my bike, I really don't fancy cycling to Manchester...

Shinkansen: the height of high-speed trains