Low-carbon travel? Well, about half of it

Yikes, that was quite a travel year. Since I was voted in as co-chair of the European Greens in December 2024, I’ve travelled a lot to meet in person with member parties, and where I can, I take the train, though there’s been a lot of flights as well. I’ve also travelled to speak at events relating to legislation that I worked on over my time as an MEP: the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

 

Around half my travel was ‘low carbon’ though, so that was a step in the right direction. 80,000 kilometres, 38,000 by train, and ferry. You can see some of my journeys from this map of where I snapped photos along the way. Still, it did involve 200 trains, 50 buses and taxis, and 45 flights. Oh, and did I mention tele-working? There were also about 250 online meetups. My travel carbon footprint? About 9.5 tonnes of CO2. I've made a stab at mapping the travel using the geo-tags from my photos on Google Images.

 

What take-away from all of this? Improve the onboard Wi-Fi on trains and make it easier to log on. Persuade Transport for Wales to allow trains departing from Holyhead to wait for up to ten minutes to facilitate ferry foot passengers. Reduce the security checks in Holyhead ferry terminal for foot passengers embarking by ferry, as they far exceed the checks for those who travel by car. Provide Fast-track disembarkation by bus for foot passengers arriving by ferry at Dublin and Holyhead Port. Show train departures from Holyhead in the Holyhead customs hall for foot passengers arriving by ferry and travelling onwards by train. Provide Wi-Fi, ferry information and announcements in Holyhead embarkation lounge for foot passengers boarding the ferry. Improve the pre-check-in toilet facilities at Holyhead. It is a long list, but achievable. My long list would include an overnight sleeper train between Holyhead and London, or a ‘sleeper bus’ with couchette seating that could take you all the way from Dublin to Paris or Brussels. 

 

Still though, a Sailrail ticket between Ireland and the UK is surprisingly good value. I generally top it up to Club Class which gives you video quality Wi-Fi across the Irish Sea, oh and they throw in a continental breakfast on board, and a free newspaper for that nostalgic feel. The price doesn’t increase before the departure date, unlike the Eurostar ticket which can sky-rocket in price unless you purchase a few weeks out. I absolutely appreciate that many people can’t contemplate a half day travelling from Dublin to Brussels, and for so many who are caring for children, parents or others it is well-nigh impossible. However, if you can afford the time, and if your job involves a lot of screen time, a train or ferry can give you time to think, to read, or to catch up on emails.

 

If you’re not a regular continental train user, be warned that German long-distance trains are notoriously late, Polish train food is delicious, and Belgian trains are pretty reliable. A full water flask is a must, and a warm coat and scarf for winter travel in case you’re stuck on a cold platform. Patience and sense of humour helps, and an understanding that front-line staff can’t work magic if you’re going to miss a connection. 

 

I wrote this post at Holyhead Port, where high winds cancelled the afternoon ferry, but the evening boat sailed. In the meantime, I got a good afternoon’s work done in the town library, housed in a wonderful old Markets building where the locals were friendly, the Wi-Fi free, and the staff called up a cafe for me to check it would be open for an evening meal. The joys of slow travel!

 

Low-carbon travel from Dublin to Strasbourg

This week I was in Strasbourg from Dublin for European Parliament debates and votes this week. I traveled there by buses, trains and ferry. If you’re curious about ‘low-carbon’ travel you might like this account of my journey. Living in Stoneybatter in Dublin 7 I was able to walk down the road and take the FerryLink shuttle bus that goes from the Ashling Hotel near Heuston Station to the ferry terminals at Dublin Port, stopping en route at Bachelors Walk and Customs House Quay in the city centre. A  trip down the Liffey Quays: ‘Grand yet human in scale, varying, yet orderly” according to the Architectural Review back in 1974‘ brought me to the Irish ferries terminal, dwarfed by the 12 deck high MV Ulysses behind. Once you check in, a shuttlebus brings you a few hundred metres to the front of the High Speed Craft Dublin Swift which gets to Holyhead in just two hours From Dublin Port we head  past the Pigeon House chimneys and out into Dublin Bay past the Poolbeg Lighthouse heading east to Wales. Interestingly the HSC Dublin Swift started life as a United States troop carrier, and was used in rescue operations after the Japanese Tsunami back in 2011. So even though the leg room is good, I’m a bit nostalgic for the old HSC Jonathan Swift which had a more comfortable interior.

On board there’s time for coffee, and decent wi-fi for Zoom calls, though the sky was  looking fairly gray after last week’s mini-heatwave. The SailRail ticket is a wonderfully old-fashioned piece of paper, and their train image looks a bit like an old CIE 001 Class locomotive from 1955, built in the old Metropolitan-Vickers plant in Manchester.  Why Sailrail? Well, it’s better for the planet, about six times better, so as someone who travels a lot for work by planes, trains and ferries, I try where I can to let the train take the strain  Once I arrived in Holyhead after a two hour crossing it was down with the gangplank, and off go the cars. Cue disgruntled mutterings from those of us who have to wait for the bus to the ferry terminal. You then walk through the terminal to the rail station where there’s a welcome stand and the women there gave me a map of Holyhead, and some key Welsh phrases to learn. It was a lovely touch from the Welsh Tourism agency. Then it was time to hop on a train and  head to Chester via the north Wales coastline, with fine views of the Gwynt y Môr wind farm, 15 km. offshore.  

I changed to a faster train at Chester that powered down to London Euston through Stafford and Milton Keynes. When the first phase of High Speed 2 opens in the late 2020s it may shave an hour of the 4 hour Holyhead London trip. On arriving at Euston, after a four hour trip from Holyhead I take a 15 minute walk to St.Pancras International, avoiding the polluted Euston Road by taking the ‘Wellbeing Walk’ through Somers Town. It was my first time using the ‘Smart Check’ app at St. Pancras which allows you to fast-track straight through check-in without a ticket check, and side-skip UK passport checks.There I hopped on a Eurostar headed for Paris. You head across the English Channel through a tunnel that is 50km long, that was opened in 1993.You arrive after two hours in Paris Gare du Nord and the clock has moved forward by an hour so it is early evening.I then took  a short stroll to Gare de l’Est. I had some time to spare in in Paris and was impressed with the number of cyclists. There has been a huge rise in cycling numbers here under Mayor Anne Hidalgo. At 8.30pm I get on to my last train, a two hour hop by TGV across France to Strasbourg on the Franco-German border, and time to prepare for tomorrow’s meetings. It was a full-on day of travel, but a significantly lower environmental footprint then flying, and more leg-room and less airport hassle.

As regards cost: the  Eurostar and continental trains prices rise closer to departure. A Sailrail ticket generally cost €52 to London, the Ferrylink bus costs €4.50. Looking at prices, the London Paris Eurostar costs €86 in a fortnight’s time, and the French train ticket €45 from SNCF, so under €200 for the whole trip. It is true that flights are much cheaper! They often are, as airlines don’t pay tax on their fuel, but the Greens in the European Parliament  are working on ‘fairer fares’ and a level playing field. Carbon? Sure, Ferries use marine diesel oil, a dirty fuel on each trip, but foot passengers are only a small share of that, the bulk is cars and trucks. On balance the SailRail combo is many times cleaner than flying,  Recently Minister Eamon Ryan and his French counter-part announced improvements that are making  Sailrail journeys between Ireland and France easier. Here’s a write-up in @TheJournal about the Sailrail changes that will hopefully make low-carbon travel a more attractive option.

Oh, and if you’re planning a SailRail trip via the UK, Mark Smith of Seat61.com is the guru for travel advice. Thanks as always @seatsixtyone.  Also, this week in Strasbourg we adopted a new law known as the ReFuelEU Regulation which will mandate the use of 'Sustainable Aviation Fuels' for aircraft in the years to come. The requirement starts at 2% in 2025, rises to 5% in 2030, but will take many years until the figure reaches 50%. In the meantime aviation numbers continue to rise. So, for the moment the greenest option is to avoid flying, or fly less, if you can. 

Do I fly? Sure I do, and my job would be a real challenge if I didn’t. But when and where I can I try and take trains and ferries, and around half of the 200,000 km. I’ve travelled over the last four years as an MEP were ‘low-carbon’.

Bound for Copenhagen

That's the Dún Laoghaire Greens giving me a send-off in the picture.

I'm headed for Copenhagen, and I set off on my 'slow travel' trip on Sunday lunchtime, after a coffee and a 'danish' in the Ferry Terminal in Dún Laoghaire. Tonight I'm in a hotel on the Euston Road, and tomorrow I'll travel by Eurostar to Brussels, then on to Cologne where I'll board a night-sleeper to the Danish capital, hopefully in time to hear Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu address the United Nations Climate Change Conference. I'm also hoping to attend a session on family planning and climate change - a thorny subject, as well as workshops on planning and transportation

It'll be good to have some time to think, and to read on the journey, both of which seem to have become luxuries in the last few years.

I found my 1977 copy of Amory Lovin's "Soft Energy Paths" behind the washing machine the other night, and that's part of my reading material. I've also brought John Houghton's fourth edition of "Global Warming, the complete briefing". Herman Daly's "Beyond Growth" is also packed, along with David MacKay's "Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air". The Clerk from the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security has also provided me with extensive briefing material, ranging from a Department of the Environment Heritage and Local Government summary, to the UN Review of Ireland's most recent submission, as well as the current US Senate position on Climate Change.

It's been a good week for tackling greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland. John Gormley delivered his third Carbon Budget, and published the framework for the Climate Change Bill 2010. Brian Lenihan's budget also introduced a carbon levy at €15 a tonne. That'll add around 5c to a litre of petrol. It won't change behaviour overnight, but it will send a market signal that we're beginning to take the issue seriously

The 1330 Dún Laoghaire-Holyhead ferry arrives into Holyhead just after the 1530 express train to Crewe leaves the platform. It's an annoying example of a lack of joined-up thinking, and helps explain why the sail-rail trip to London takes a similar amount of time as it did 100 years ago. Still, the trip was sociable: I ended up talking to a truck driver who was on his way back to Newport after delivering a second-hand driver unit to Holyhead for shipping to Ireland. There's great demand for them in Ireland in the last year or so, and apparently they sell for around £25,000 sterling- a bargain, or so I'm told.

The HSS ferry is scheduled to be withdrawn though from early January, and hopefully will be replaced with a decent alternative. Cheap air travel has sucked the passenger numbers off the ferries, partly because aviation has up to now been exempt from taxation. This is due to change though due to agreements hammered out at predecessors to the Copenhagen conference, so hopefully there'll shortly be a more level playing field between different types of travel that will take into account the carbon footprint. Interestingly the Arriva train down to Chester advertised its green credentials, as does the Virgin train service from there to London.

We may not get a binding political agreement in Copenhagen, but the presence of thousands of delegates (as well as protestors) shows that climate change has to be taken seriously.