Train vs Plane: The Carbon Math
Climate-Positive Travel
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The plane gets you there in an hour. The train takes four. The numbers say take the train.
Dear IMPT Family,
You’re going London → Edinburgh, Paris → Marseille, Berlin → Munich, New York → Boston. The plane wins on time. Almost everyone, if they ran the math, would still pick the train.
🔥 Key Highlights 🔥
1️⃣ The headline carbon numbers
2️⃣ Why short-haul flights are climate-disastrous
3️⃣ Where the train wins decisively
4️⃣ Where the plane still wins
5️⃣ A practical decision rule
Per passenger-kilometre: Domestic flight ~240g CO₂e, long-haul ~150g, high-speed train 5–35g, bus ~30g, car ~170g. Train ≈ bus << car << plane.
Most of a flight’s emissions happen at take-off and climb. Short flights have the same energy-hungry climb spread across far fewer kilometres. France banned short domestic flights where train alternatives exist.
If a high-speed route is under 6 hours and you start/end near city centres for fewer than 3 nights, take the train. Carbon falls ~80%. Trains drop you in city centres, not airports forty minutes outside.
Looking Ahead — Defaults Are the Whole Game. The trip you’d have happily taken by train, but didn’t because the booking flow defaulted to plane, is the one we’re trying to claw back.
Let’s keep building — together. 🌍💚
