The case for the slow lane.
I gazed out the window as the landscape shifted from rugged mountains to busy roads lined with low-lying buildings, the bus finally coming to a stop in the centre of a town. I was six hours into a 14 hour journey, and the daylight was beginning to fade. I wasn’t sure which town we were in – just that we were somewhere in central Turkey, between Mersin (the port city in the south that I’d arrived in from the ferry that morning) and Istanbul (the destination of this clunky, well-travelled coach).
A rustling to my left had me taking out my headphones and turning to see a nervous-looking young woman, dressed in comfy travel clothes, getting her neck pillow out of the bag she’d placed in the overhead storage before slipping into the seat next to me. “Merhaba,” I greeted her with a smile, which she returned. We introduced ourselves, her shy demeanour turning to curiosity at this Western girl who spoke broken Turkish – like she’d learned it from old Cypriot fishermen (spoiler: I had). Through a mixture of our 2 languages, Google translate and a fair amount of hand gestures, I got to know my new seat-mate.
Her name was Gül, she was 21 (the same age as me) and was travelling to the city for the first time in her life, to go to an interview for her dream job. She would be staying with her older sister, who she hadn’t seen in almost a year, and I shared how excited I was to see my own sisters after five months working away. Gül’s interview was to be cabin crew for a prestigious airline, and she was most nervous about was the portion where she would be asked questions in English. We practised late into the night, her typing Turkish words she’d like to use into my translate app, and me quietly teaching her their English pronunciation, as the rest of the passengers dozed around us. At some point, we must have drifted off, and woke to find ourselves pulling into Istanbul bus station, which was already filled with coaches and travellers, even at 6am. We exchanged Instagram handles, hugged tightly and wished each other luck on our respective journeys – just two girls from completely different worlds, momentarily thrown together. As I watched Gül walk away to find her sister, I remember thinking: what a real, human experience we had just shared. Something that never would have happened if I’d just done the easy thing and got on a plane home.
I know most people aren’t unhinged (or unemployed) enough to spend four days on buses and ferries instead of taking a four-hour flight. So, today’s research article focuses on some more reasonable switches – from short-haul flights to train travel – and why we should do it. Aside from the sense of adventure and the cheesy “appreciating the journey as well as the destination”, reducing our air miles is kind of important if we want a liveable planet in the future.
Flying – not as fair or fast as you might think.
‘On average, UK residents take 4.4 flights per year.’ This statistic hides some vast discrepancies: half of all UK households do not fly at all in any given year, and 76% of flights are taken by just 20% of households. Add to this the fact that more than 80% of passengers on international flights to and from the UK are travelling for leisure, and it becomes clear that plane travel is a luxury for the wealthy. Cheaper flights in recent years have generally led to the richest households flying more, rather than opening up flying as an option for poorer households.
New research shows not only that flying is the most polluting form of transport, but that demand for flights is ever-increasing, with fossil fuel emissions skyrocketing alongside. The researchers found that planes going to and from the UK produce 160 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. This number doesn’t even take into account connecting flights, so the real measure is much higher, especially with the rapid increase in the number of passengers travelling to “hub” cities like Dubai where they will catch an onward flight.
The researchers scoured flight paths, calculated emissions per passenger kilometre, and worked out equivalent train travel time to popular destinations. Using this data, they delivered an amazing, in-depth analysis of our current plane-centred holiday market. So, what impact would “reasonable” swaps from plane to train travel make?
A swap was defined as reasonable if the journey could still be completed in five hours or less. Using this metric, and only looking at rail routes that already exist, the scientists found that a whopping 41% of all flights to or from the UK could be easily switched to train journeys!
Whilst train travel isn’t carbon neutral (yet), it does reduce emissions by 90% compared to flying. Furthermore, with over half of all passengers travelling to our five closest European neighbours (the most popular destination is Spain), and the Channel Tunnel providing a high-speed connection, it seems as though it should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, flying is almost always cheaper and faster than getting the train, and the researchers believed that major transitions away from short-haul flights could only be made possible with top-down interventions and policy changes.
Their suggestions for governments included:
- Creating direct train routes between key cities, to make journeys quicker and less complicated.
- Expanding the Eurostar to allow it to connect cities such as Manchester, Birmingham, Munich and Barcelona.
- Increasing taxes on plane travel.
- A sleeper train revival!
- Creating package-holiday deals that include train tickets as a viable alternative to all-inclusive flight deals.
In France, flights between cities that can be reached by train in less than two and a half hours are already banned, setting an amazing example for other countries to follow. Creating laws like this stops airline companies from simply reducing their fares to compete with newly emerging rail routes, and could be an important part of a societal shift away from short-haul plane travel.
How can you find Another Way?
Sometimes, when I write an article, it’s difficult to identify behavioural changes that you can make as an individual that will make a difference to the specific issue I am writing about. However, in this case its easy-peasy: fly less!
Reducing the number of flights you take per year, or pledging to go flight-free, can drastically reduce your personal carbon footprint. Websites like “seat61.com” and “Rome to Rio” will help you plan over-land journeys just about anywhere in the world, and you can choose to be more intentional with your travel, perhaps switching to more local holiday destinations or staycation-ing.
Remember, for most of the world, plane travel is not a normal part of life. Have your beach holiday in Devon, embrace the grime of the 17-hour FlixBus to Venice, take the swanky sleeper train to the Swiss Alps. However you want to go flight-free, you’ve got this!
Want to know more about travelling without flying?
https://flightfree.co.uk – Inspiration for travelling abroad from the UK without leaving the ground (or sea).
http://flixbus.co.uk/ – Cheap buses which offer a great alternative to flying throughout the UK and Europe. Also takes bikes.
https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/train – High speed train network between European cities. How else could you be strolling around Lille in less than two hours from leaving London? Also takes bikes.
https://www.seat61.com/– One of the internet’s most helpful travel websites, which also offers a guide to travelling by train all over the world. Written from experience.
Article written by Maddie Kirby
References
Primary Paper: Morgan M, Wadud Z, Cairns S; 2025. Can rail reduce British aviation emissions? Transportation Research Part D; 138. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136192092400470X
**Science is constantly evolving. To the best of our knowledge, all information is accurate at the time of writing.
