Hopefully trains will again become competitive as politicians get around to pricing the considerable environmental externalities of air travel.
Edit: looks like this is coming along, http://theenergycollective.com/parthvaishnav/287406/icao-dea...
Edit: looks like this is coming along, http://theenergycollective.com/parthvaishnav/287406/icao-dea...
I'm genuinely curious because I've always been told that flying is worse, and it would be nice to feel less guilty about flying.
Coming to think of it maybe planes are worse because of the fact that, even if driving is worse for the same distance, people are willing to go much further with planes because they are so much faster, and therefore end up polluting more overall.
Air planes require much less personnel and have no tracks. Trains are still in 60ies with fat unions and zero innovations. Also how is 50 ton airplane less efficient than 5000 ton train?
And if train takes 5 days instead of 5 hours, you should also count in the foot print of person who is traveling. In one sleeping coupe you could fit 6 aircraft passengers...
Sure airplanes do make traveling easier, but that does not make them less efficient.
These aren't controversial numbers, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_aviati... . And really, a plane is more like a bus than a car, where planes lose by a lot more still.
But it's silly to compare to cars as if matching cars would be ok - car co2 emissions are also very bad.