Eurolines – Seriously low carbon travel

Eurolines, the international coach operator today revealed the carbon costs of its services to Europe are up to 6 times lower than the same journey by plane.

Independent analysis of its services by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management reveal that a journey to Paris by coach is will produce 10.6 kilos of carbon per passenger journey, compared to 52 kilos by air and a trip to Vienna just 22 kilos by coach compared to 190.9 kilos if the journey is by plane. On average, the research reveals the carbon footprint for coach travel is 5.58 times lower than the costs of flying.

Managing Director John Gilbert said: “This is confirmation that travel by coach is really low carbon travel to Europe. Not only are we consistently the lowest cost option for travel, but have a low environmental cost too.”

Eurolines, part of the National Express, had six of its routes assessed using the actual fuel consumed and average numbers of passengers carried in 2006. The figures also accounted for the carbon costs of ferry crossings for each journey.

“With so much concern about global warming and travel’s impact on the environment, we are delighted that Eurolines can help people to reduce their carbon footprint. This is a significant issue for our younger travellers in particular, who are the first generation who will live all their adult lives in a climate changed world” said John Gilbert.

“Destinations like the French Alps, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels are easily made by coach. We believe more people will start to take the carbon costs of such journeys into account when planning a trip, so it is important for us to have the information available for passengers.”

The company also has a carbon calculator on its website - Eurolines.co.uk - so that passengers can see for themselves the savings they will make if they opt to travel by coach rather than fly.

John Gilbert continued: “The implication of the independent analysis for Eurolines is that the more people travel by coach to Europe, the lower each passenger’s carbon footprint will be. Simply, carrying more passengers on each of our coaches will reduce the carbon footprint of every single passenger we carry. So for example, a full Eurolines Plus coach to Paris with 61 passengers onboard means each passenger has a carbon footprint 5.9 times lower than the equivalent cost of a journey by air. “

There are, in fact, even more carbon advantages to coach travel: unlike airlines coach journeys are usually from city centre to city centre, so eliminating the additional carbon costs associated with air travel of journeys to and from airports at both ends of trip.