Viewing Topic: The very 1st carbon neutral Eurostar
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The very 1st carbon neutral Eurostar
As far as high-speed, carbon-neutral, international travel goes (yes, not much of that I hear you say) it was really pretty good. The much anticipated St Pancras - Paris rail line inaugural journey happened with a little ceremony and still less shopping. A ploy to reduce our tendency to materialism, or simply that very few of the retail units were finished and there were still wires hanging out all over the place? Answers on a postcard... Still, check-in was a smooth as you could wish, with the swift ticket-gates we know and love from Waterloo, plus speedy baggage scans and passport checks. Everything at St Pancras is shiny-new apart from the trains, which have been journeying from Waterloo for years. The lines however are very new which is where the time-saving comes in - the train reached 186 mph in a few minutes and so cut the journey time down to 2 hours 15 minutes. More significant is that all the journeys are now carbon neutral and they don't charge you any more for this either. Eurostar have been working to reduce or offset carbon through their Tread Lightly initiative. As part of this initiative, they have made a commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a further 25% per traveller journey by 2012 - marvellous. Apparently a return journey London to Paris on the Eurostar now produces 111 kg less carbon dioxide than a return flight from Heathrow, which is fantastic news, and other European destination have similar benefits. Friends of the Earth are official partners of Eurostar and they were out in force to promote energy-cutting, greener travel although the offsetting element is still somewhat controversial.
And what's it like travelling at 300kmph? Well a bit like a normal train, but it jiggles and tilts a bit more than your average, but there's no jowl-wobbling or hair-ruffling thank goodness - highly unattractive. The time spent on the English side is a series of tunnels which make your ears pop a lot and the French side is a bit flat; the in-between bit is dark and as long as you don't mind the thought of all that weight of water pressing down on a little tunnel right above you head - actually let's not go there. Any claustrophobia aside, this is a truly momentous step forward in environmentally-friendly international travel, providing a very attractive alternative to air travel with a lovely heap of greenness on the side. It's up to us to take advantage of it and spread the word, have a look at their site for more information and timetables: http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/about_eurostar/environment/tread_lightly.jsp. And once you're there (if you're a very brave soul) you might want to cycle around Paris French-style, on an impressively well-maintained hire bike, dressed entirely in black and without a helmet. When in Rome ...
Posted about 1 year ago by Emily Mackay and has 0 replies