Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Are trains really Green?

According to Roger Kemp of Lancaster University, trains produce as many greenhouse gases on a per-seat basis as cars and planes. Standard high-speed trains in the UK are no better than modern economical cars - and the new superfast trains are as bad as planes over 600km.

Engineering Dept News - Trains Lose Steam in Green Travel Race

There's a fuller discussion here: http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=17840

However, suburban trains and metros are much more efficient than cars, mainly due to higher passenger density, but also due to getting from A to B much more quickly than cars that are stopping and starting all the time, using more fuel in the process.