Trains on Trial - BBC Radio 4
Available for download - Friday 26 Sept 2025 12:04
I took part in this panel discussion- I hope you’ll listen.
26 September 2025
54 minutes Friday 12:04
BBC Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002jsvs
It’s 200 years since the first passenger rail journey saw George Stephenson’s Locomotion No.1 travel 26 miles between Shildon, Darlington and Stockton. Environmentalists love trains - making a journey by rail can be up to 80% greener than doing it by car - and there are exciting new inventions hoping to make train travel even greener. But can we pin part of the blame for global warming on the invention of the railways in the first place?
Presented by Tom Heap and Helen Czerski
Produced by Beth Sagar-Fenton
Assistant Producer: Toby Field
Rare Earth is produced in association with the Open University
I listened to the programme. You almost totally ignored the question about the wide disparity between airline fares and rail fares: for some journeys travelling by air is an order of magnitude cheaper. Why is this? I suspect it follows from the cost of constructing the railways. By contrast the air between airports is essentially free. Given the enormous carbon footprint of building the track, that we are still - even after 200 years obviously still paying for - should we not travel everywhere by air?
Can we place part of the blame for global warming on trains? No. The climate is changing, but there is not a shred of evidence that climate change is caused by human activity.