Can the car be greener than the train? - Railways need to improve

Even the RSSB doesn't deny that the environmental case for taking the train is going to take further knocks if nothing is done to improve its efficiency.

With much of the diesel stock likely to remain unchanged for up to 30 years, railway carbon dioxide emissions are unlikely to change dramatically unless more lines are electrified.

Yet in the next 15 years, average car emissions are expected to fall to 98g/pkm as manufacturers build more efficient engines.

The study concluded: 'As the efficiency of cars progressively increases, the difference in emissions between cars and high-performance trains will narrow and it will be increasingly difficult to make an environmental case for transferring people onto diesel-powered railways.'

The report's author, Professor Roger Kemp, even urged the Government to abandon plans to force families on to the train and focus instead on businessmen.

'It's not politically correct to say so, but the Government is better off encouraging families into low-emission cars and getting business people, who tend to travel alone in large cars, to catch the train,' said Kemp.




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