carbonneutraltourism.co.uk

Mark Smith the Man in Seat 61 has an article in the Guardian which looks at how to do five luxury rail journies cost effectively.

Amtrak which provides rail services to 500 destinations in 46 states on 22,000 miles of track has partnered with the Carbonfund to offer a carbon offsetting service to passengers. US$3.00 offsets 2,500 miles of travel with Amtrak!

I was lucky enough to be invited on Eurostar’s first journey from St Pancras International station to Paris and to a lunch hosted by Friends of the Earth. The new high speed route knocks approximately 15 minutes off of the old journey time.

Eurostar are leading the way in addressing the environmental concerns of passengers. Earlier in the year they launched ‘Tread Lightly’, their green strategy, and Eurostar’s Chief Executive Richard Brown commented: “We don’t have all the answers but we do know that a high-speed Eurostar journey is 10 times greener than flying – and that Eurostar can be greener still. People want to minimise their impact on the environment, and our aim is to help passengers tread lightly when they travel.”

Eurostar have launched an number of environmental initiatives which address wider environmental concerns:

• Installing driver energy advice systems on trains to help drivers drive as economically as possible
• Fitting new controls for train lighting, heating and air-conditioning to reduce power consumption
• Working with suppliers, particularly Eurotunnel and Network Rail, to source cleaner electricity supplies
• Making even better use of train capacity
• Designing energy efficiency into the mid-life re-engineering of the train fleet
• All Eurostar journies are carbon neutral
• Eurostar are also working with Friends of the Earth