10 days ago, I went to Berlin for a company event. I asked to go by train, instead of by plane. I spent 26 hours traveling by train from Périgueux to Bordeaux, then Paris, and finally Berlin, returning through Mannheim.
The journey was long but beautiful, with stunning landscapes. I enjoyed exchanging anecdotes with my neighbor, canevasing, working on my laptop, taking breaks to stretch, or lending my Switch to colleagues for the biggest Mario Kart tournament ever.
Without the train, my alternatives would have been1:
- 🚗 Driving from Périgueux to Bordeaux: 60 Kg of CO2 (half if carpooling)
- ✈️ Flying from Bordeaux to Berlin: 500 Kg of CO2
By train, I only emitted:
- 🚃 Périgueux to Bordeaux by TER: 8 Kg
- 🚆 Bordeaux to Berlin by TGV and a bit of metro: 8 Kg of CO2
- and as I had to add two hotel nights: 20 Kg of CO2
But that’s still about 15 times less!
We can’t always avoid flying2, but when it’s possible, I consider my duty to think of alternatives, especially since I had the time and resources to do it.
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The estimates come from the Ademe carbon footprint calculator ↩
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I have family in the French West Indies, and although I haven’t visited in nearly a decade, I plan to make the trip soon. Unfortunately, there aren’t many options for quick back-and-forth travel that take less than three weeks! ↩