How Public Transport Can Save the Environment

by Henry Day

hydrogen-powered train

While avoiding meat and dairy is supposedly the single best way to reduce one’s impact on the planet, and installing solar panels could dramatically reduce a household’s carbon footprint, cars are both affecting our planet worse, and easier to solve. The transport sector accounts for 121.4 million tonnes (27.1%)  of the UK’s total air pollution, making it its largest contributor to the approximate 448.5 Mt the UK is estimated to have emitted in 2018. Although more efficient fuel and less traffic growth have led to the sector steadily decreasing, it is still a major problem, with a series of potential solutions that must be understood. 

Although planes account for a proportion of this statistic, that problem is an entirely different challenge. On land, however, two major theories have been put forward, electrically powered cars and a more institutionalised use of public transport. Electric cars are expensive to individuals and, since the technology is still unobtainable to the general public, it would be impossible to implement any policy on them to aid their growth. This seems to be a natural progression, which is generally seen as desirable, so can be seen as an inevitable step in the evolution of the transport sector. Just as motorised windows and air conditioning have become expected in modern cars, hybrid and fully electric carswill progressively become the norm. Invariably therefore, cities will have to adapt for such a demand, charging spaces and drives will increase and society will inevitably adapt to this progression.

This change cannot be forced or sped up. To attempt to counter the issue of the transport sector’s emissions they must instead focus on public transport. These ideal can be combined, by funding electric buses and trains, one does not only reduce their own pollution, but can replace hundreds of thousands of daily commutes with cleaner sources of travel. Britain has already planned to cut out all diesel only trains, which only make up 29%, by 2040; a long term goal but still a noteworthy effort. They are currently pushing for a bi-mode system of electricity and diesel, with hydrogen fuelled trains another ideal method. This potentially shows British dedication to clean the train system. These hydrogen fuelled trains have already been developed, such as the Alstom Coradia range, the problem is over their practical implementation; perhaps they would be easier to implement if the railway was re-nationalised or heavily subsidised by the state.

Furthermore, the UN Environment Programme is working on developing electric buses in major cities world wide, to provide a cleaner and more sustainable mode of transport in urban areas. London started replacing buses at a rate of 700-1000 per year, since 2014, with hybrid, electric or hydrogen fuelled vehicles instead. The technology is demonstrably there, the issues faced are how to bring in such changes, and how to get people to use them. Ted Kheel, a New York lawyer, is one of many to have suggested they should simply be free to passengers. At first glance this seems an utopianist concept, however it has been heavily considered in New York, outlined in Germany, and is set to be implemented in Luxembourg.  In 2009, the New York mayor suggested financing it with congestion fares for cars and trucks entering the business sector, whereas in Britain an increase in road or council tax seems the obvious method, however implementation remains difficult. To convert the UK transport sector into an environmentally friendly system we must start with clean public transport, and perhaps the only way this will make a difference is if we make the fares free.