drunk_nik
|
Travel - dilemma in retrospectBeen meaning to post this for a while but haven't had a chance - so much gets written on here it's a job just to keep up to date!
Background; I had a training course with work, friday 2 weeks ago. Company has multiple offices & training is all organised centrally. (Whichever office has the most people involved in any course acts as host.)
Situation; 4 people from my office in Wokingham have to travel to Guildford. 1 Colleague & I assumed we'd be taking the train. Other 2 colleagues (different department), had organised to get lift together.
Solution; company is paying for us to travel - so to minimise costs we all ended up going together in the car.
Dilemma; what would have been the best way for the environment? Obviously it would have been for us all to take the train. But this wasn't really an option - all 3 colleagues normally drive to work anyway and I didn't know the other 2 were attending training course until the day of the course. But given that the weight of 2 extra people in the car used up extra petrol, was our footprint dramatically increased by taking car over train? Would train have used same amount of extra petrol/electricity (I've no idea about trains - southern might still be using coal/steam for all I know)?
I doubt there's a correct answer - but what would you have done - asking for a lift as they were already going to the same place was automatic for me. It only really occured to me as a dilemma later on that evening.
|
Helen_A
|
No 'proof' for this but suspect that, as your local lines are all diesel trains; if the car you were in had an engine less than 2L you may have made less or the same pollution that way (based on that part of the journey alone).
If the local trains had been electric, then you'd be even in a car less than 1.6L, and over that the train may have been 'better'.
|
vegplot
|
I read or heard somewhere that travelling by train is akin to having a car that does 80-100 mpg. If that's the case then 4 in a car doing 35mpg appears to be the better option. Not travelling is of course far better 
|
gnome
|
it's not just a question of car or train though is it? is the training centre actually on the platform? if not, there is a very good chance you would have to get a taxi to the training centre from the train station in order to get there on time. i don't know what the trains are like in your area, but around here they are so irregular that they are not really suitable for commuting and you have to change several times.
unless the car you all went in was on Jeremy Clarksons "top five things i want for Xmas" list, i'd say four people sharing a car is probably as good for the environment as taking the train, if not better.
|
