Now with advancements in the technology of the 21st century, commute channels have shown significant improvements. 

We don’t get to ride the rails that go Choo Choo, emitting gas, or just go imagining airplanes. 

Now we can easily travel via electric trains and airplanes that have much more advanced engines than ever. 

Are Trains Better? 

Now throughout the entire world, trains are known to be environmentally friendly forms of transport. 

Trains are much more efficient than any other transport that exists. It can move 50,000 people per hour. You can compare this with a freeway lane that can move up to 2500 people per hour. 

So it takes one train with 8 carriages to move much more people than 15 buses. And if we talk about cars that can be anywhere from 250 to 1000 cars. 

The cost spent on trains in terms of air pollution, noise, infrastructure deterioration and also chances of accidents are much lower than using a private vehicle. 

According to research, trains as transport are 7 times safer than your road vehicles. It is a safe and comfortable form of transport. Trains are a big source of increasing the accessibility of shopping, business events, jobs, and social activities. 

It helps in reducing noise pollution like traffic noise and also road congestion. Trains are capable of protecting the environment and operating effective environmental acts like; 

  • Energy management
  • Biodiversity
  • Air quality
  • Water
  • Waste
  • Vibration and noise management

Climate Change Impacts

The advanced tech in trains is now able to deal with a lot more climate factors than ever before.

The new trains that you see are equipped with brakes with regenerative capabilities. This allows the traction motors to act like generators while braking to save up electricity. 

When you decide to travel via train, you are making a contribution towards a healthy environment. 

Are Planes Any Good? 

In comparison to trains, planes are a very controversial topic to talk about in a climate debate. There is a visible disconnection between an airplanes’ carbon emissions and ours. Air travels actually dominate the frequent travelers’ sole contribution to climate change. 

The aviation industry actually accounts for 2.5% of carbon dioxide emissions globally. There are a lot of people who do not or can not afford to fly. 

Planes emitting carbon dioxide are attributed to countries and according to different Carbon dioxide emissions on a domestic flight are counted as the certain county’s emission. Now the ones that are international need to be dealt with. 

Along with other gases and the water vapors from aircraft, the aviation industry is responsible for 5 percent of global warming.

This percentage might not seem that big as there is a very small percentage of the global population that flies. In developed nations like the UK or the US, the percentage of the population that flies frequently is 12 to 15 only. 

Considering mile to mile, flying is in fact the most dangerous phenomenon, yet advanced, damaging our environment. 

So if there’s a return flight from London to San Francisco, that will emit around 5.5 tons of carbon dioxide which would be equivalent per person. 

That is twice the carbon dioxide produced by a bunch of family members in a car in a year. Now that is a drastic and dangerous number of carbon dioxide emissions right there damaging our climate. 

Emissions from planes are increasing every year. There was an increase of 32 percent in carbon dioxide emissions between 2013 and 2018. Fuel efficiency methods are under practice in the aviation industry but it is failing to keep up with the total number of passengers, which is said to be doubled in the next 20 years. 

So if you have fuel efficiency improvements of like 1 percent every year, the number of passengers increases by 6 percent. So the progress of controlling is not even close as of now. 

The number of passengers and the times we fly can be difficult to micromanage if we are really into vacationing abroad or just for business purposes even. 

A single individual flying domestic let’s say in Britain can make a climate impact equal to 254g of carbon dioxide for every kilometer. This research was conducted by the UK’s Department For Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). 

So if a journey is made by a coach or a train that is more environmentally friendly for the planet than anything else. 

So trains and coaches are said to have fewer carbon emissions, much lower than airplanes and even cars. 

Cars also have the potential of emitting less carbon dioxide than flying – that is also possible if you are giving someone a lift too. Ground transport can also help you save time if you calculate it accurately. If you think about it, planes can often cause a lot of time-consuming with the check-ins, security, baggage claim, and whatnot. 

Additional Train Benefits

The advantage of taking a train is that you get to connect with intercity routes as compared to airplanes where you have to go out of town to even catch a plane. You can easily explore different locations and localities via train whereas with planes you have to face some restrictions.

Traveling via train can be made much more impactful for the environment’s benefit if you keep the carriages clean and report any sort of misconduct on the account. This is your contribution towards waste control and helps with making the ride enjoyable too. 

So climate change is happening and it is no surprise to anyone in this day and age. Things we can do to make it better also include how we prefer to commute as it clearly makes a lot of difference. 

Saving time can also be done through sustainable and eco-friendly commute options like trains or coaches. This not only benefits the environment but also helps with health and general well-being. 

Write A Comment