Trains are also way more efficient than cars at transporting people. If everyone taking the train was driving instead you can bet air quality would be way worse.
I'd rather have trains move people than cars. One can hold many more people than the other and doesn't clog up the highways and most likely produces less pollution...
Trains also do not have to completely supplant cars to make a difference. If people take the train to work and use their cars to run errands around town it's still an improvement over driving everywhere.
Trains at least stop and open their doors occasionally letting in fresh air. Each car has less people in it than a typical commercial flight, and my train trips are significantly shorter than my plane flights as well. It’s not obvious to me what’s worse one way or the other.
Just want to point out, taking train, doesn't automatically mean it's better for environment than car. Please don't push this EU green-madness.
If the train is less occupied than certain percent of seats and your destination is far from train station, so you will still use taxi anyway....than it's way worse to take train, in regards of emissions.
There's also the environmental angle where trains are generally way more efficient [0] in terms of emissions per passenger, particularly compared to plane travel.
If this is taken to its logical conclusion, everyone should drive. Trains are not more efficient than a the average car when measured in passenger mile per gallon equivalent. And trains are much less efficient when compared to a high MPG cars like a Prius.
Whats the matter with the Europeans? Don't they care about the environment?
Trains are also vastly more efficient, space-wise, at moving people than cars.
As the article mentions, increasing rail infrastructure would logically include regional connections first. It's not like we'd be building a train track everywhere there's a road
Trains might be more efficient in terms of energy, but sadly they are much more expensive (here in germany), than going by car. (except for some special fares)
And the car goes anywhere, anytime and the train does not. So no wonder, also here, for most people the car is the choice number one.
I didnt make the argument that trains were better for every possible situation on the planet. I was refuting the claim that it only works if everybody has to go to one place.
Its of course also the case that the Western world after WW2 fully embraced the car and made sure its the most efficent while basically making sure street space was cleared of anything else. Before that street space was full of different uses.
Its only more expensive if you assume you already have a car, and a garage and so on.
And for a society, every single study shows that overall for society, private car travel is the most costly and the worst for the envoirment. You arent actually paying for all those costs.
From where I live airport is 1h by car and 1h 10min by train. Combined with parking and everything you will likely be faster with the train.
reply