Train operators constantly compare their performance to airlines, but airlines measure emissions per flight and aircraft type and I’ve never seen that from any rail company, though they variously claim to be anything from 25 per cent to 200 per cent more efficient than air travel.
I’ve tried to clarify this with people in the rail sector, but had no reply – my suspicion is that they don’t know, they just take random numbers and hope no one is going to investigate.
In their green arguments, rail operators never take into account infrastructure. A lot of track was put down in Victorian times and it takes considerable maintenance and energy to run a station but they never factor the cost of infrastructure into their argument; and there are many more rail stations than airports.
Another claim is that rail travel is growing ‘very fast’ – one aggregator quotes 32 per cent growth. But it seems to be growing fast in the business sector because where companies had to go the station and buy a ticket or use Thetrainline.com or other websites, they can now book through online booking tools or GDS, so rail operators can see corporate bookings where they couldn’t segment the market into leisure and business before. They’re claiming ridiculously high increases in business travel because it’s gone from nowhere (can’t recognise it) to measurable (can recognise it).
I’m not a commuter but I go up to London from Basingstoke to Waterloo for meetings and there is often a 12-coach train that’s barely 10-20 per cent occupied if I’m travelling at non-peak times. Rail companies seem to be unable to alter timetables according to demand nor to reconfigure trains.
Airlines respond to demand it all the time. During the Air France strike, British Airways switched their French flights from A319s to A320s or 321s to provide more seats – because they knew the demand would be there. Rail companies seem unable to do that. I’m comparing rail operators with the airline industry because that’s what they are always doing – but airlines are much more adaptable than rail companies.
Rail companies always say they offer a door-to-door service and you don’t have to queue to get onboard. But if you’re on a connecting service from Brighton to Edinburgh via King’s Cross, there is a lot of waiting around. We don’t all start in London and as a company, we cannot use rail in the regions for longer trips. If you are travelling from Brighton or Portsmouth to Edinburgh by train, you have to go through London. It’s 4.5 hours from London to Edinburgh at the quickest time and it takes at least 1.5 hours from Brighton to King’s Cross, so that would take a minimum of hours.
A rail company recently claimed that it took only an hour longer by rail than by air from London to Edinburgh, a route they love to quote. There is no way that is true, even factoring in Heathrow or Gatwick. I replied and didn’t get a response. I worked out you can fly from London City to Edinburgh in about 2.25 hours with normal check-in time etc – by train it is getting on for five hours. And you could definitely do a day return with a decent-sized meeting travelling by air but it would be impossible to do it as a day return on the train, so you would have to factor in the cost of a hotel, evening meal etc. That adds a green cost as well. They never mention that.
And the cost of rail travel is huge compared to air. My investigations show it is generally less expensive per trip to fly within Britain. I did a comparison recently and it was £150 cheaper to fly from London City to Edinburgh than to go by rail from King’s Cross to Edinburgh. If we had been able to go from Luton or Stansted, it would have been cheaper still.