Figures released today, Friday, 11th November, by train operator Lumo, show that travelling on its trains between London and Edinburgh is 40 times greener than flying over the same route.

The latest figure is a significant increase from the previous estimate that train travel was six times greener. All Lumo trains feature 100% electric haulage between Edinburgh and London along the East Coast Mainline. The new figure is based on statistics showing that Lumo’s trains release just 0.006 kg CO2e per passenger per kilometre, which is40 times less than the 0.24587 kg CO2e per passenger per kilometre for air travel.

The air CO2e figure is calculated using published Gov.uk figures in the 2022 conversion factor file
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1083857/2022-ghg-cf-methodology-paper.pdf

Rail has now overtaken air travel as the preferred mode of transport between Edinburgh and London. Comparative figures show that between April and August 2019, 57% of journeys between the two cities were by rail, compared with the pre-pandemic total of 35% for the same period in 2019. In August, rail instead of domestic flights was the choice for 66% of travellers, which suggests the upward trend is continuing. These figures are based on publicly available Civil Aviation Authority data and the rail industry’s LENNON sales data.

Since Lumo launched its service between London and Edinburgh in October 2021, over one million customers have travelled with the company. It is now taking bookings for travel during the Christmas period with tickets from London, Kings Cross to Edinburgh starting at £31.90, and tickets from London, Kings Cross to Newcastle starting at £26.90.

Martijn Gilbert, Managing Director at Lumo, said: “We launched Lumo to provide an affordable sustainable option for travel between Edinburgh and London, and the new figures showcase just how much the environment benefits from customers making the decision to travel by rail instead of taking domestic flights.

“Our pricing model has now encouraged over one million customers to take the train between the capital cities, with more people getting the train than the plane between the two for the first time in decades. We hope these new figures encourage even more travellers to make the switch to Lumo.”