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Is traveling by train worse for the environment than airplanes?
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R. G. Williamson/Rex Features
One of the most conflicting and troubling things in today's world for those of us who both love to travel, and also care deeply about the environment and sustainability, is the horrible carbon emissions that airplanes put into our air.
It's been widely reported, and generally accepted as a given, that travel by airplane is the worst environmental culprit there is. But not so fast - New Scientist magazine reports that, according to a study at the University of California Berkeley, traveling by train may be worse than by plane.
This new study compares emissions generated by 11 different modes of transportation in the US. Unlike previous studies on transport emissions, this one looks beyond what is emitted by different types of car, train, bus or plane while their engines are running, to also include emissions generated from building and maintaining the vehicles and their infrastructure, as well as generating the fuel to run them.
The researchers calculated how many passengers each train, plane, bus or car would carry in its lifetime and how many kilometres it would cover. New Scientist reports:
Including these additional sources of pollution more than doubles the greenhouse gas emissions of train travel. The emissions generated by car travel increase by nearly one third when manufacturing and infrastructure are taken into account. In comparison to cars on roads and trains on tracks, air travel requires little infrastructure. As a result, full life-cycle emissions are between 10 and 20 per cent higher than "tailpipe" emissions.
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