Climate and pollution
Trains are the most carbon-efficient mode of transport after cycling and walking – and are expected to remain so.
Rail travel is between two and three times more energy efficient than going by car, and rail freight is nine times more efficient than road transport.
This means that rail causes less air pollution. This is important because up to 24,000 vulnerable people are estimated to die prematurely because of exposure to air pollution, much of which is due to road traffic. Vehicles produce 75% of particulate and nitrogen oxide pollutants.
Rail carries 7% of traffic but only emits 0.2% of carbon monoxide generated by transport, only 2% of nitrous oxides, 1% of volatile organic compounds, and 2.5% of sulphur dioxide emissions. Sulphur dioxide can cause acid rain which damages trees and buildings and harms aquatic wildlife.
Human activities that burn 'fossil fuels' like oil and coal are releasing carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere at a far greater rate that would naturally occur. It is now accepted by the global scientific community that this extra CO2 and other 'greenhouse gases' are causing global climate change. This rapid warming of the earth will have a huge impact on weather systems and sea levels, which in turn will have disastrous consequences for many of the world's people, especially in the poorest countries.
In the developed world, transport is the fastest growing sector of human activity that causes greenhouse gas emissions, so it would make sense to encourage those forms of transport that emit the least amount of CO2 . An inter-city electric train causes releases of less than 20 grams of carbon dioxide per passenger km whereas a car emits nearly 40 grams and a short-haul plane emits more than 50 grams (British Rail research). More CO2 is produced for each passenger on a return flight to Florida than a car driven for a year by the average UK motorist. And moving a tonne of freight one kilometre by rail produces 80% less carbon dioxide than moving it by road.
In 2008 the UK government announced £100m to develop renewable energy: wind turbine farms, solar power, tidal power, etc. If these could be the power source for power stations that supply electrified railway lines, rail transport will be even less polluting. The trouble is, in the UK only 30% of lines are electrified, compared with the European average of 42%.
Railfuture campaigns for a rolling electrification programme, to electrify intensively used or high speed routes and to infill small parts of the network to link up other electrified sections.
Railways take up less land than roads. A double track railway can move 30,000 people per hour in each direction, but a 2-lane road can only handle 3-6,000. A double-track railway takes only a quarter of the land needed for a 6-lane motorway.
For more information about how rail can help stop climate change, see UN Climate Change report.