Trainline is encouraging people to shift to rail travel in order to meet the UK’s net zero goals for 2050.
The digital rail platform’s ‘I Came By Train’ campaign, which aims to encourage the use of rail, revealed that a 30 per cent increase in rail travel is needed by 2035 in order to achieve the net zero goals set by the UK Climate Change Committee for 2050.
To achieve the 30 per cent target, Trainline aims to build a coalition of tech, rail, policy makers, NGOs and community groups to inspire more people to choose rail, calling on “collective action to inspire behaviour change”.
This comes after new research from Trainline revealed that 58 per cent of respondents have considered switching to train travel (instead of driving) to reduce their carbon footprint. According to Trainline, if this cohort of people opted for the train (instead of the car) on just one 200-mile journey each year, that alone would deliver one third of the 30 per cent goal – and reduce the UK’s CO2e emissions by 4.5 million metric tonnes.
Trainline CEO Jody Ford commented:
“Project 30% is a collective mission, and its success is in our collective interest. The answer to achieving this goal lies in collective action.
“Together we can help close the existing gap between the emissions cuts required and existing policy ambitions, by enabling and reinforcing positive behavioural change in the way people travel.
“When we talk about attracting 30 per cent more people to rail, that isn’t just a challenge the rail industry needs to take on, it’s a challenge for broader society. How do we get 30 per cent more day trippers to take the train? How do we get 30 per cent more business travellers to take the train? How do we get 30 per cent more sports fans, festival goers and shoppers to take the train?
“Addressing these questions is where I see the future of ‘I Came by Train’ as a campaigning coalition, that brings together tech, rail, policy makers, NGOs and community groups to act together to support people to accelerate their own individual positive changes.”
The 30 per cent target has been calculated according to the UK Climate Change Committee’s Sixth Carbon Budget, which laid out the need for a 58 per cent increase in passenger rail by 2050 vs a 2019 baseline year. Modelled as a linear increase, this equates to the 30 per cent figure by 2035.
Last year Trainline Partner Solutions – the business travel arm of Trainline – found that UK business travellers are increasingly concerned about sustainability when it comes to transport options.
Trainline: low carbon travel has become a priority for UK business travellers
