Didcot to Paddington plus ULEZ

Posted on 28th Jul 2023 by insightndes

Caught a long delayed train instead of the one that I was meant to catch so I thought I’d get to London early. But further delays due to signal issues resulted in long delays on the way into London. But got there in the end. The train was 47 mins late according to the announcements. I was only 20 mins late.

Anecdotally the ULEZ is a success. London smells better. The traffic moves more freely. Pollution has reduced in London and I wonder if the pollution outside London has reduced. Pollution rises into the atmosphere in London and then comes down in Oxfordshire. Has anyone measured this?

In last weeks election the Conservative Party made much of the ULEZ. Unfortunately the primacy of the car still exists for a lot of people and is considered a vote winner. To me health and the environment trumps-why do we still think that poisoning people is acceptable?

Travel

The far north to London in July

Posted on 22nd Jul 202322nd Jul 2023 by insightndes

A sunny but cool day for the trip on the far north line.

Train arriving

And then on to the Caledonian Sleeper at Inverness.

All very civilised, dinner (overpriced) and breakfast in the buffet car.

This is a very effective way to get to London, set off at 1632 from Thurso, arrive in 0800, 30 minutes earlier than expected. There were meant to be delays due to engineering works.

After leaving Euston station I encountered action by people dressed in orange tabards, who I believe were Just Stop Oil protestors. This did not affect me for two reasons. I was cycling and I was heading in the opposite direction to the blocked carriage way. Traffic stationary on the other side of the road. A minute later I spotted a single police car trying to make its way through the traffic. Then another few minutes on half a dozen police vans with sirens blaring. The vans were struggling to get through the stationary traffic so they crossed over to my side of the carriage way. All very exciting. Why did they not travel from the opposite direction in the first place ?

Environment, Travel

Don’t fly….

Posted on 22nd Jul 2023 by insightndes

After the epic and throughly enjoyable train trip from the far north of Scotland to Porto I am going to continue to blog on less environmentally expensive transport. Looking at some of my trips and some big issues out there.

The trip to Porto. https://my-insight.org/2023/06/01/no-fly-zone/

Environment, Travel

Plane vs train CO2 emissions

Posted on 2nd Jul 2023 by insightndes

Handily the Guardian Newspaper has published a comparison of CO2 emissions between plane and train (and car). See https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/30/carbon-emissions-from-uk-rail-travel-lower-than-previously-thought?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The example the Guardian cited was the journey from London to Edinburgh, which is one part of the journey that I completed. 12.5kg for the train and 131kg for the plane, more than a factor of 10 difference. All the trains I travelled on we’re pretty well full, so maximum savings achieved.

From the article “The first result from RDG’s new carbon calculator confirms this figure is actually 12.5kg/CO₂e – approximately half the previous estimation, and 10 times less carbon than car travel or 13 times less than the equivalent flight.” referring to trains. I am actually surprised how much better trains are than flying and cars.

Insight