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TORQUE TO THE TREES

  
     
  "It was a life changing experience. Seeing Earth, this little ball in space, makes you aware of a bigger picture...You see the beauty, harmony and fragility of our planetary environment and you start to realise what we're doing to it, out of pure stupidity and ignorance. I'm certainly a die hard environmentalist. And, even though I spent 20 years in the Navy, I was always staunchly against war and violence as a means of settling anything. By greed and over-consumption and war, we're destroying our environment and our planet... Sooner or later we'll reach Mars. There's no question about it, provided we don't blow ourselves up in the meantime. When we do get there and look back at this tinly little speck called Earth from the distance of Mars, it would sound rather foolish to say "I came from the US or Britain or China or Germany or France." We should say "I came from Earth". We really haven't got our acts together on that yet."  
     
 

An Apollo astronaut looks back from the Moon

  
     
  "It was a life changing experience. Seeing Earth, this little ball in space, makes you aware of a bigger picture...You see the beauty, harmony and fragility of our planetary environment and you start to realise what we're doing to it, out of pure stupidity and ignorance. I'm certainly a die hard environmentalist. And, even though I spent 20 years in the Navy, I was always staunchly against war and violence as a means of settling anything. By greed and over-consumption and war, we're destroying our environment and our planet... Sooner or later we'll reach Mars. There's no question about it, provided we don't blow ourselves up in the meantime. When we do get there and look back at this tinly little speck called Earth from the distance of Mars, it would sound rather foolish to say "I came from the US or Britain or China or Germany or France." We should say "I came from Earth". We really haven't got our acts together on that yet."

So said Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, and nearly four decades after his journey to the Moon "all mankind" is finally starting to feel more responsibility for its own small, fragile planet.

One example was the story published in the Gloucester Citizen of Tuesday 14 August 2007:

Britain's model railway enthusiasts are supporting a green initiative aimed at protecting Gloucestershire's woodland and planting trees for future generations. The online model railway retailer Ontracks.co.uk is supporting the Woodland Trust by giving part of all its customer's delivery charges to the charity. Ontracks is donating £1.00 for each model railway item sent to a customer to the Woodland Trust's tree planting scheme.

Tim Mulhall, director of Ontracks.co.uk, welcomed the growing support of railway modellers for the tree planting scheme. He said "Climate change is topical at the moment, but we mustn't lose sight of the importance of protecting and planting trees. Trees are an important part of Gloucestershire's heritage, history and environment, and we decided as a company to support the work of the Woodland Trust in Gloucestershire and along the Severn Valley."

  
     
 

Another organisation which promotes both space travel and railways - and until recently had a large presence in Gloucestershire - is the Virgin group of companies. Its West Coast division - using tilting Pendolino electric multiple units to transport passengers between London Euston and Glasgow Central - has also been keen to stress its green credentials.

 
     
 

A Virgin West Coast Pendolino at Glasgow Central

  
     
  Another organisation which promotes both space travel and railways - and until recently had a large presence in Gloucestershire - is the Virgin group of companies. Its West Coast division - using tilting Pendolino electric multiple units to transport passengers between London Euston and Glasgow Central - has also been keen to stress its green credentials. But how easy is it to accurately compare different forms of transport in terms of environmental impact. The 9 May 2007 issue of Professional Engineering had this to say:  
     
  Eurostar launched its Tread Lightly campaign, a bid to become the world's first carbon-free train  
     
  Eurostar set 3107 pauses at Ebbsfleet en route from St Pancras to Paris Nord. Photograph by Kevin McArdell  
     
  "Frogs and railways go together as well as Greenpeace and smoking chimneys, yet they are the images used in Virgin Train's latest advertising campaign. The animated advert, which is being shown on the internet and television, makes the claim that Virgin's Pendolino electric trains emit 76% less carbon dioxide than cars and domestic flights.

"Hop on board" says the advert. And it seems that railway operators are doing just that when it comes to jumping on the bandwagon with this type of advertising. Eurostar and Virgin are both are both using adverts that promote their environmental achievements. Eurostar launched its Tread Lightly campaign, a bid to become the world's first carbon-free train operator, last month.

But can this type of advertising be justified? Just how does a train operator go about working out its carbon footprint and comparing it to those of the airlines? And are claims like Virgin's 76% accurate?

  
     
  The research for Virgin's advert involved engineers from the company being chosen to work out the carbon footprint of Pendolino trains compared to an average domestic flight and car journey. The team chose a Boeing 737 aircraft and a Ford Focus car and looked at how they were different from the train, on routes from London to Manchester. They took into account the capacity of the vehicles as well as the train's electricity supply, to work out the carbon dioxide emitted by each mode of transport.  
     
  The research for Virgin's advert involved engineers from the company being chosen to work out the carbon footprint of Pendolino trains compared to an average domestic flight and car journey. The team chose a Boeing 737 aircraft and a Ford Focus car and looked at how they were different from the train, on routes from London to Manchester. They took into account the capacity of the vehicles as well as the train's electricity supply, to work out the carbon dioxide emitted by each mode of transport.

Lee West, Virgin Train's communication officer, says:

"We looked at the weights of the vehicle and how many people can travel by that mode. We also looked at how many people are likely to get on a Boeing 737 or on a Ford Focus or on the train. And said, over a distance where you could fly, drive or go by train, what is the likely carbon dioxide emitted per seat?"

The researchers used a carbon calculator, a program used to work out companie's carbon footprints. The result showed that a Boeing 737 with 120 to 150 seats produced the equivalent of 40kg of carbon emissions per seat, while the five seater Focus gave 12.9kg. To Virgin's delight, the Pendolino's emissions were a mere 0.9kg per seat.

According to the company, this meant that the train emitted 76% less carbon dioxide than the other two modes of travel. And, to back up the claim, the figures were verified by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management.

  
     
  Virgin Pendolino 390 018 "Virgin Princess" at Lancaster  
     
 

Virgin Pendolino 390 018 "Virgin Princess" at Lancaster

  
     
  So, if the figures were approved, surely they must be right? Not according to Professor Roger Kemp, of Lancaster University, who has compared rail, air and motor travel in his study "The Environmental Impact of High Speed Rail". He says that,while on average aircraft load factors are 70%, UK rail achieves just 31%. He also says that Virgin has forgotten that people get on and off trains, but with planes "you don't tend to lose people en route."

Kemp says "With Virgin's calculations, the maths is OK, it's just the assumptions that they make. They assume the plane and train have every seat taken. This is not what happens, as some coaches are more crowded than others. I'm not going to say it's dishonest but I think the assumptions they have made push the boundaries a bit to what is poor advertising"

  
     
 

So what does the aviation sector, the biggest scapegoat for causing carbon emissions, have to say about Virgin Train's claims? Chris Goater, spokesman for the Airport Operators Association (AOA), questions the calculations. Not because they are inaccurate, but because he knows such statistics are difficult to work out.

  
     
 

A Boeing 737 of Tarom is pushed back at London Heathrow airport

  
     
  So what does the aviation sector, the biggest scapegoat for causing carbon emissions, have to say about Virgin Train's claims? Chris Goater, spokesman for the Airport Operators Association (AOA), questions the calculations. Not because they are inaccurate, but because he knows such statistics are difficult to work out.

"I think Virgin is being slightly ambitious with its figures," he says "It may well be on certain routes that it is greener to take the train. I'm not going to argue with that. But it is very difficult to make comparisons of this kind, as there are all kinds of factors involved. As an industry, we have tried and are still trying to find an agreed metric for fuel efficientcy because it varies so dramatically between aircraft types and load factors. And, equally, it's very difficult to work out what the CO2 impact of a train is because it depends on where it gets its electricity."

Paul Everitt, director of communications at the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) is not convinced either. he says that the plane used to do the research is "not really the type of aircraft used for domestic flights between London and Manchester."

Virgin argues that it used the Boeing 737 because it represented the "average size of aircraft" that all airlines used, while the London to Manchester route represented the "average" domestic journey.

  
     
  E3003 - later 83 003 - one of the original West Coast Main Line electric locomotives  
     
 

E3003 - later 83 003 - one of the original West Coast Main Line electric locomotives

  
     
  Adverts such as Virgins suggest that trains are becoming more and more eco-friendly but this is something else that aviation companies question. Goater of the AOA says that new trains such as the Pendolino require more power and, in fact, produce more carbon emissions than the old trains.

"When companies got rid of the old slam-door trains they had to upgrade the power network because the new trains required more power. There you had an example of trains getting less efficient while aircraft are getting more efficient."

Some airlines feel that emphasise that rail firms are tackling environmental issues are unfair to the transport sector as a whole. Lorna Farren, of Ryanair, says:

"Media hype would have people believe that aviation is responsible for global warming, but in reality aviation accounts for just 2%. I think they should be looking at other causes of carbon emissions, such as power stations."

Everitt agrees. He says companies shouldn't just be looking at whether it is more environmentally friendly to go by train than plane.

"Every single of the transport sector has a part to play in reducing carbon emissions."

Goater goes further, saying that aviation is doing just as much as, if not more than, the rail operators to become more environmentally friendly.

"We are not complacent in our industry and are working very hard to reduce carbon emissions. We have made huge strides in the efficientcy of our aircraft, and there are a lot of technological improvements that we are making."

Does this mean that using environmental statistics to advertise shouldn't be the way forward for the transport sector?

Kemp of the University of Lancaster believes so.

"It is quite difficult to advertise science when you're dealing with facts and you don't know where thay have come from or what they are representing. I am very supportive of the industry. But there is a danger that, in using these figures, it runs the risk of losing its credibility, and that would be a bad thing."

Despite the strong opinions that have developed across the transport sector, for and against this type of advertising, this could be the beginning of a new kind of marketing for the rail industry as environmental issues continue to make headlines.

Hassard Stacpoole, media relations manager at the Association of Train operating Companies, says:

"Virgin has a bigger budget than other companies so it can do this sort of thing. But I can see other train operators going down a similar route in the future."

As the argument over the ecological benefits of train versus plane takes off, how long will it be before the airlines take the same path as their rivals? Well, with Ryanair already promoting itself as Europe's greenest airline, perhaps not that long.

Everitt says:

"If you look at websites of companies such as British Airways and Ryanair they are also promoting themselves as being more eco-friendly."

Kemp says:

"Everyone now is claiming to be so green that eventually you start to wonder what's green and how they do it."

As technology improves and the aviation sector reduces its carbon emissions further, will airlines one day be claiming to be more environmental than the railways?

"It is conceivable at a later stage, but unlikely" says Goater, "I don't anticipate the aviation sector claiming it is greener than the rail sector or the motor sector, not in the immediate future, anyway."

  
     
  As technology improves and the aviation sector reduces its carbon emissions further, will airlines one day be claiming to be more environmental than the railways?