Budget Flights vs The Train

Today was a national day of action against short-haul flights, led by a group called Plane Stupid.

18 from the group (12 on the roof, 6 at the front entrance) targeted EasyJet's headquarters in London.

Aviation may only account for 3% of UK global warming emissions, but it's a sector that is expanding. The government's Aviation White Paper from 2003 predicted that air travel would treble by 2030 (from 180 million annual journeys to 501 million). Runway additions or extensions are planned around the country.

If the air travel sector of the economy keeps expanding, we'll need to make far deeper cuts in emissions across all other sectors of the economy. Trains are over 10 times less polluting, and besides, trains are more fun. I've taken trains from Hong Kong to Helsinki, from Chicago to LA, from San Francisco to Detroit, and what would I have seen if I had flown ... the inside of a plane.

Even farther destinations, say, Venice, aren't really far. Train to London, Eurostar to Paris, TGV to Geneva, and if you time it right, sleeper train to Venice, so that you wake up beside gondolas.