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this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
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Isn't the better option still electric (catenary; not battery) trains? I'd imagine the emissions from the batteries (that would need cells replaced / new batteries when airplanes are replaced) would outweigh the ecological impact of the train tracks installation.
Yes but flying is fast and convenient. Having a replacement for fossil fuel operated planes that provide the same functionality to consumers instead of asking them to somehow compromise is the key to success here.
Don't get me wrong, I love trains. I just took the train from central Germany to Glasgow this week. But it took about 14 hours, we had to change trains twice and almost missed one of the connections. Friends, on the other hand, who flew the same route arrived within ca. 3h and had basically an entire extra day here.
I live in Ireland, so no.
Finally build that tunnel to GB!?
Where? The shortest distance between the two islands is between Northern Ireland and Scotland. If the UK can't even build a bridge or tunnel between two parts of itself (to make its kingdom actually united), how on Earth will that become any simpler by adding another country to negotiate every detail with?
Also the UK doesn't seem overly eager, right now, to add new avenues for immigrants to arrive through.
Well yes, but who wants the best solution that is already there if you can sell a new solution for lots of money?
That is very much a "it depends". Tracks are narrow, but very long: they have a much larger ecological impact that a runway. However tracks can handle a lot more people than a runway or two.
If the tracks are between two large cities (and the smaller cities on the way) then they are the much better option. This is the most common case by far - most people live in a large enough city to support high speed rail.
However building tracks to every small town for the few passengers that would use them is an ecological disaster and so planes like this running a few times a day to a large city (where you can then get on the trains) is the better ecological choice.
Of course in reality high speed trains are around 300km/h (world record is around 600km/h - but at those speeds the aerodynamics of altitude make the airplane better). I didn't find a speed in the article, but I would make an educated guess that they are planning on 600-700kmh speeds. Which sounds fast, but if there is tracks the train wins because a station is likely to be closer than the airport plus there is no arrive one hour before your flight rule.
The article didn't say capacity, but the picture suggests around 100 passengers. Either your town is too small for this, or your town is large enough to build tracks. In the first case you want 25 passenger airplanes. In the second case this is an ecological disaster - just build the tracks to the city.
In Spain there are a lot of electrified tracks, and all high speed tracks are, but many tracks are electrified near urban areas, and not electrified in vast rural areas. Intercity trains are Diesel electric, running on electricity when they can, and switching to diesel for the rest. I've wondered why they don't replace the diesel engines with batteries, to be charged while running on catenaries, to run the trains on the non electrified segments.