Carbon emissions would be cut by a “huge amount” if everyone in Britain switched one leisure trip from car to train, according to new analysis.
Train operator London North Eastern Railway (LNER) said carbon emissions from leisure travel would be reduced by 17% if everyone ditched their car for a train once a year.
LNER worked with researchers at University College London’s (UCL) Energy Institute to calculate the figure.
It also commissioned a survey of 2,211 adults in Britain which indicated that 6.1 million people intend to use the car for a day trip or holiday this autumn.
Some 36% of people are not aware of the impact small changes can have on the environment, the poll suggested.
LNER has produced a carbon calculator, which shows journeys by train produce less than a third of the carbon compared to those by cars.
The operator’s managing director, David Horne, said: “We know that being greener is hugely important but many of us aren’t sure on our role and how our individual actions can make a difference.
“As cars emit three times more carbon emissions than rail and with so many people planning on using the car for a leisure trip this autumn, we’re asking people to consider travelling by train just once to do their bit to cut emissions.
“Collectively we could save enough carbon to fill Wembley Stadium 25 times, which is a huge amount of carbon we could prevent from being emitted into the atmosphere.”
Wembley has a capacity of 90,000.
Professor Paul Ekins of UCL added: “Often we talk about climate change in large scales such as icebergs melting and sea level rise, and this can make the issue feel overwhelming and unmanageable and discourage people from making changes in their lives that can help.
“What our research has concluded is that small changes made by enough people really do make a difference.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel