Environment

Empowering people to make greener travel choices

At Trainline, environmental sustainability is fundamental to our purpose. Through our technology and data, we make rail travel easier, empowering people to make travel choices that are better for the environment.

Rail offers travellers a greener alternative to flying or driving, creating 87% less CO₂ emissions than air travel and up to 67% less CO₂ emissions compared with car travel, per passenger. It can move millions of people quickly and cleanly, for leisure or business, across countries and continents.

We believe we have a key role to play in supporting the rail industry, businesses, and governments in meeting their emissions targets.

Our cross-functional sustainability team is dedicated to encouraging modal shift; promoting rail as a more sustainable way to travel; and reducing the impact on the climate from our own operations.

The external context

UK and European governments have continued to encourage modal shift to rail and increase their investment in rail in order to meet their net zero emissions goals. The EU is targeting a 55% reduction target for CO2 emissions by 2030, and the UK has a reduction target of at least 78% by 2035 and a legally binding target to reach net zero by 2050.

Cars and planes create 58% of the UK’s transport CO2 emissions, whereas the entire rail network creates less than 1%. The UK Decarbonising Transport plan highlights rail as “the greenest form of motorised transport”. It sets a target of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions from trains by 2050, through increased electrification of the rail network and introduction of new technologies such as hydrogen-powered trains.

We are already seeing the impact of this transition to rail in the UK, for example, with Lumo carrying one million passengers between Edinburgh and London since its launch, resulting in rail now being the favoured mode of transport between the two cities. Similarly, in Europe, cars and planes create 74% of transport CO2 emissions, and the entire rail network adds up to less than 1%. The EU Commission has highlighted rail as playing a key role in the EU becoming climate-neutral by 2050. It targets the doubling of high-speed rail traffic by 2030 and a tripling of high-speed rail by 2050. Third-party ticket vendors such as Trainline have been identified as having a key role to play in the delivery of elements of this plan.

In the last year, European governments have taken further steps to encourage modal shift from cars and planes to rail to achieve their carbon reduction targets. France introduced a ban on internal short-haul flights, those under two and half hours, which was formally validated by the European Commission in December 2022. KLM is also encouraging passengers to take the train rather than fly on some short-haul flights as the Dutch government cuts the number of flights from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to cut air pollution.

Product and promotion

Our aim is to empower people to make greener travel choices, driving a modal shift that benefits people and the planet.

Trainline has a key role to play in engineering the travel habits of the future and enabling people to choose the most sustainable transportation option.

During the year, we launched a new consumer campaign that celebrates all the heroes who travel by train. We also introduced new features on our Mobile App and on Web to encourage modal shift, including “Your Sustainability Story”, which informs and educates customers on their emission savings vs other forms of transport.

We also continue to support the “I Came By Train” campaign, which aims to grow the public’s awareness of the relative benefits of train travel and inspire pride in those that take positive action. We gained strong early momentum with industry and government stakeholders with the launch of a white paper on how the rail industry can encourage more people to choose rail.

This year, the campaign has analysed 250,000 UK rail routes to create the Reasonable by Rail database which shows when trains beat planes or cars for speed and savings. This data has been made available for government and industry stakeholders and powers Trainline’s Super Routes feature.