Eurostar, where now?

What has the Eurostar achieved and where it can go from here? Since 1994 the Eurostar link has been transporting passengers to and from the UK to Europe. During the 14 years the link has been operating air travel has also become popular due to the rise of budget airlines.

Transport is a very important matter in modern society; it allows us to go from one place to another to go about our business (work/recreation). Eurostar comes into this as an integral part of the transportation network in the modern society (directly linking the UK and Europe together). In an ever-growing concern for climate change and the threat of global warming, Eurostar takes a stand on it to do their part to help the world around us. For a company to be successful they need to be able to provide a good service while show strong morals.

Airplanes are popular choices for long distance traveling, and in the recent 10 years short distance has taken off, The Eurostar has been enjoying steady growth as well. To people concerned about environmental issues and want to go from London to Brussels taking a plane vs the Eurostar seems to be a waste:

Emissions comparison between London Waterloo to Brussels and Heathrow/Gatwick to Brussels. [1]
Eurostar vs plane

The image above shows on average how much CO2 is produced per passenger km and how much per trip. It shows clearly that if you are conscious about being an environmental traveler you should take the Eurostar from London to Brussels as you are using on average 8.7 times less kg CO2 per passenger trip compared to Heathrow and 12 times less as from Gatwick. This is a huge difference and after possibly factoring in the time it takes (1:51) by train to just over 90 minutes, possibly more due to security checks and procedures at airports.

What can Eurostar do become better in the future?

As the Eurostar is a rail operator, to look at alternative options is a little tricky. The company could do different things to remain sustainable, like increasing their capacity and carry more passengers on each journey, that is a potential problem if that was to occur. First stations would have to be made longer to accommodate the extra carriages that could be added to the coach. Another alternative is to change the trains to be a 'double decker' style coach. Problems with this are the fact that the uk rail system would have to have extremely modified carriages to be able to fit on the uk rail system [2], [3]Page 5. This is less of a problem on the Continent as the railways are wider and accommodate trains differently.

The Pros of changing the type of trains Eurostar uses is the fact that they wouldn't have to change the length of platforms but they would have to do extensive research and development in finding a perfect solution. Less physical length of the carriages (or at least the same length) would cause less disturbance on the noise pollution of when the trains are moving at high speed.

Thinking for the future, Eurostar's greener way of thinking

The environment is a big 'buzz word' today, in a sense that we need to do everything that is possible to protect it while at the same time still able to evolve and adapt to the changes. One way of this is a method called carbon offsetting, a method of making the impact on the environment lesser and possibly nullified. For example the company could plant trees in places for every one that is chopped down when new lines are built.

Eurostar have explained their methods in their claim that they are 'carbon neutral'. As quoted from the source [4]:

We calculate our CO2 emissions in a three step process.
1.We know the energy our trains use in kWh of electricity on each route (e.g. London – Paris) and each route section (e.g. Calais – Paris)

2.We forecast the number of trains we expect to run on each route, for the period in question this allows us to forecast our total electricity consumption, by route section. We expect to run 19,846 trains in 2008.

3.We use published data for CO2 emissions per KWh for the electricity used on each route section to calculate total CO2 emissions.
Eurostar Group ltd. have invested in carbon credit schemes to make their journeys neutral. Using data that has been gathered from each journey and the environmental impact.

They have put together other methods for reducing their carbon footprint [5]. For example they are aiming to change all of their air conditioning units on each train with more environmentally friendly units well ahead of a Europe deadline. This is great because there is a lot of chemicals in cooling systems which are detrimental to the environment and doing this ahead of legislation (7 years) is a great idea.

A switch to use less paper than now is good, there are many things about taking the train or any form of transportation is the amount of paper needed, with many more people taking the train it soon adds up. Eurostar have have started to switch to e-tickets and start to use recycled paper a lot more, advertise on the web etc. With more people using the internet to find information out, printed media can seem like a waste of money if it just ends up on the floor.

This contributes to the claim that the Eurostar rail link is a sustainable development, the examples above have shown through research that the company is committed to being able to sustain its own growth.

The financial impacts of undertaking improvements, what problems could arise?

As the company that runs the Eurostar, Eurostar Group ltd. is a private company, there isn't as many shareholders as there would be in a publicly traded company - fewer people in charge to make more uniformed decisions regarding the future of the company. I find it very good that the company can claim to be carbon neutral; it sets a good message to other companies that they should follow the same path.

Eurostar sets a good example to other companies interested in helping the environment and become more active in the world around us.

Financially the company has recently posted improved profits over the previous year, in 2007 [6] they made ticket sales of 599 million – up 15.5% on 2006, which shows that the company is very successful at what it does despite competition from air travel companies. Also passenger numbers were up 5.1% to 8.26 million travelers carried in 2007. Also posted in the same press release the growth has been linked to the company's focus on the environment, as well as the faster journey times with the opening of a new UK based rail link to St. Pancras international, London. Many people want to be involved with doing their part for the environment, and if that involves using a less or even neutral emission company it will only be good for the world around us.

The Eurostar link has been a good example of a sustainable development and will be a good example for the future regarding rail travel, how a rail company should be operated. Lessons learned here can be used in development in other countries. In the future when countries such as India get more modernised, they will want to become more involved with sustainable development. Replacing older trains with energy efficient electric trains will go a way to support that.

On a national scale, the example the Eurostar provides is good to the many train operators how they could become more environmentally friendly and furthermore more sustainable. In recent years trains have been replaced with the newer generation electric trains which has been in service on the Eurostar line ever since it opened.

Achievements and new targets

In conclusion what has Eurostar really achieved? It is the only way to get from London to Paris or Brussels by train on one journey. It is possible to take different trains from London to Folkstone (where the Channel Tunnel is Located) and then take the other train operator that goes from Dover to Calais through the Tunnel (Eurotunnel Shuttle is primarily for Vehicles). The company has shown it is committed to helping the environment, there is a large section on the website devoted to greener travel.

It has shown to be a very popular service with people wanting to go to the continent and vice versa, (the increase in ticket sales is one example of this).

Where can Eurostar go from here? I believe they can continue to find more ways to create cleaner methods of transportation as started in their 10 point plan [3]. They can continue to innovate and take lessons learnt from other advanced nations, like Japan with the famous bullet train. All of these suggestions can be useful to make way for a cleaner, more successful business.

Eurostar is looking to contribute to a Europe wide network of high speed rail services, it has joined with other train operators in Europe to form Railteam, to help commuters travel across the continent in a fast manner [7]. Eurostar taking advantage of an ever-changing world, this could prove to be a successful venture, and bring in better profits and more commerce to the countries that are served by the network. Eurostar could also bring its involvement with cleaner travel and environmental concern to the other operators on this new collaboration. This could help pave the way for a completely green method of transportation across the whole of Europe.

References

[1] Greener than flying, retrieved on 12/01/08, http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/about_eurostar/environment/greener_than_flying.jsp

[2]Bilevel car – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (no date), retrieved on 13/01/08, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilevel_car

[3]rutter.pdf, DCA design consultants (no date), retrieved on 13/01/08, http://www.ukintpress-conferences.com/conf/rail06/pdfs/day1/rutter.pdf

[4] The Processes We Use, retrieved on 12/01/08, http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/about_eurostar/environment/processes.jsp

[5]10 commitments (no date) , retrieved on 12/01/08, http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/about_eurostar/environment/commitments.jsp

[6]High Speed 1 delivers a record year for Eurostar (no date), retrieved on 12/01/08, http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/about_eurostar/press_release/high_speed_1_record_year_eurostar.jsp

[7]Railteam-what is Railteam, (no date), retrieved on 13/01/08, http://www.railteam.eu/en/what-is-railteam.php