Trains are great!
August 30th, 2007 at 14:26

Apparently a single report has “proved” that cars are more environmentally friendly than trains. As you might spot on the link, the issue has been needlessly politicised by a bunch of anti-environmentalist cretins who have their heads in the sand, who seem to have no problem with ignoring an almost unanimous consensus that climate change is occurring.

I’m going to be generous and take the bullet pointed headlines of this at face value, and “accept” that cars have been proven to be more environmentally friendly than trains – even though the report only takes into account one hyperthetical journey, and seems to make assumptions about the occupancy of all of the vehicles involved, and the fuel consumptions of thousands of different types of cars.

Despite all of this, I would still argue that if we are serious about tackling global warming, then the last thing we should do is shut down the railways and give everyone cars. Why? Because its easier to make a couple of thousand trains more energy efficient than it is force everyone to buy a hybrid car.

Sure, using fossil fuels to power trains probably isn’t a good idea, but trains can be (more) easily upgraded to run off of electricity… electricity that can be generated entirely cleanly. A lot of railways are electrified – the London Underground, Eurostar (thus presumably the rest of the South East), and so on. Sure, this isn’t going to help if the source of the electricity is burning oil in a power station somewhere, but equally it could be generated by some wind turbines if they’d build some.

Car usage, being a “capitalist” mode of transport, as it is hilariously called on Guido’s blog, suffers from the so-called tragedy of the commons. In other words, why should I cut down on the amount of energy I consume?

Trains don’t have this problem, as its not possible to pick and choose your train. There’s no sports-utility-trains that go to the same places, that consume more fuel and make you feel important.

So I reckon it would be easier to upgrade the train network to more environmentally friendly trains, assuming such things exist or can be invented, than convince the general public to give a damn about the environment.

(Hypocrisy alert! I also drive a band C car… I’ll get a Prius whenever I finally start earning a lot of money. But I still like trains.)

Comments(8)

1. Robert
   August 30th, 2007 at 11:38 pm

   No James you obviously know nothing bout British Railways, all of them use diesel trains not electric. except for the Virgin Voyageur trains. The East Coast Main Line is probably the only line where electrics are used. Electricfication costs too much, or the sucessive governments since the Beeching report of 1963 have spent very little as they decided to plough most of the money into making motorways. The rest of europe has and loves electric trains we don\’t.

2. James
   August 30th, 2007 at 11:44 pm

   Isn’t the Eurostar electrified? There’s certainly a lot of overhead cables.

3. Robert
   August 31st, 2007 at 5:25 pm

   Yes but that’s different as it is funded dufferently, also it was designed for speed and, the best can be had from this. As it was a joint french-english project more money was put into it. But that is perobably the only other one in Britain.

4. James
   August 31st, 2007 at 9:27 pm

   I fail to see how the origins of the Eurostar and its funding are particularly relevant. As we know, Eurostar runs on national rail track until the Channel Tunnel Rail Link opens, yeah? So therefore, there’s a big chunk of track between Waterloo and Ashford that’s electrified.

   My assertion leading from this would be that it would be easier to electrify trains than make everyone use hybrid cars, which still use fossil fuels.

5. Robert
   September 1st, 2007 at 2:45 pm

   Look james face it you know very little about trains or their running! Yes it runs on national rail from Waterloo to Ashford in Kent. the only reason they were able to pay for the expensive electricification is because it is a joint funded project between the uk and france etc. And even though it maybe elctrified there are no other electric trains own by any other companies to benefit from it. And infact diesels trains are probably more efficent than electric. your hypothesis is wrong! We needed to have not destroyed our railways in the 1960s to have any chance of getting people of the roads. We need more money, more trainsetc. We need to model ourselves more on the german sytem of local government funding services so that more people can and will usethem. so stop talking rubbish and look back at British history, in partuclar the disastorus 1963 and 1965 Beeching Plans! We needed a proper national transport plan that has never been enforced. frankly to get a good one now we\’d probably need to be in ruins like the rest of europe after WW2. So can you please stop trying to tell people about your ideas for public transport and transport in genral as you know very little.

6. James
   September 1st, 2007 at 5:44 pm

   Maybe you’re right. Tell you what, I’ll stop talking about how I think they could improve public transport if you stop offering your insight into:

   - Israel/Palestine
   - The structure of the Solar System
   - Anyone else’s personality flaws

   Ziiiiing!

7. James
   September 1st, 2007 at 6:00 pm

   In addition, I’ve actually done some research…

   According to this Hansard from the Lords, 38% of the railway network is electrified, its just that the train companies insist on using diesel trains on electrified track.

   Coincidentally, this occurs on the track between London and Edinburgh – the journey that was originally used to claim that cars are greener.

   Therefore, it would presumably be relatively cheap to buy some electric rolling stock?

8. Robert
   September 1st, 2007 at 6:49 pm

   I will continue as it annoys the hell out of you.
   By the way it wouldn’t be cheaper, as we would hvae to import it from germany and as we use a different voltage/ampage on our railways it will cost more.

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