July 14-16, 2011 -- Commercial aviation burns massive amounts of jet fuel, which of course releases large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases into the Earth's atmosphere, accelerating global warming. That's why I was glad to fly Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways from Washington Dulles to London Heathrow.
In 2008, Branson's airline became the first to use biofuels in a demonstration flight on a Boeing 747 flight from London to Amsterdam, using a 20% biofuel blend in one of its four engines. Environmental organizations called it greenwashing because the biofuel was feedstock from coconut and babassu oil. But that doesn't take into account the next-generation biofuels that are being developed such as algae oil that are clean burning and don't compete with the food supply. What Branson did was steer the conversation towards the carbon footprint of air travel and get the discussion going about alternative fuels.
So I was glad to be flying an environmentally friendly airline like Virgin Atlantic that is doing its part to combat climate change. Hopefully soon every airplane will be powered by clean burning biofuels instead of fossil fuels.
At Heathrow Airport there is an Underground subway station so you can easily choose the green option for getting around London by hopping on the Tube.
Besides the extensive and efficient Underground subway station, London has a huge bus fleet that runs every five minutes or so and takes you anywhere you need to go in the city. From my starting point at Swiss Cottage there were loads of buses traveling to Central London. And most of the buses are double deckers, which alleviates some of the crowding issues common on the Underground.
But the greenest way to get around is by using foot and pedal power. I rented a bicycle through the popular Barclays Cycle Hire biking sharing system and was able to cover a lot of ground in a short amount time. The bike sharing system in London is similar to the Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C. The stations look similar and the bikes are a similar frame and design. It is a healthy, green way to see London and I really recommend Barclays Cycle Hire the next time you find yourself there.
London is a bike friendly city and a pleasure to ride around once you get used to that whole driving on the left side of the road thing. There are enormous green spaces, part of the Royal Parks system. Hyde Park is a good example. Although you are not allowed to bicycle in the main grassy area, there is a wide two-lane bike path that winds around the perimeter. But are bikes supposed to ride on the left side like autos? The answer is yes so don't say you weren't warned!
There was an electric vehicle charging up next to the bike station, which was a pleasant surprise. The EV is called G-Wiz and it touts itself as the most popular electric vehicle in the UK. The website claims the G-Wiz is capable of 50 miles to a charge. That is ten more miles than the Chevy Volt gets.
Besides the environmental benefits of not burning gasoline, there are financial benefits to owning a G-Wiz in the UK, including not having to pay Road Tax and being exempt from London's eight pounds per day Congestion Charge.
Another pollution-free way of getting around is the Solar Shuttle, which ferries passengers across The Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park.
London is also a pedestrian friendly city, with lots of visible warning signs for motorists and raised pedestrian crossings like this one.
If you are from Washington, D.C. and use the Metro subway system like me, then you are not used to escalators that actually work. The Washington Metro has a chronic problem with broken escalators across the system. It is an embarrassment for the most powerful city in the world. That's why it was such a pleasure riding the European public transit systems. I did not find a single broken escalator in every city I visited. And they were all running much faster than even the few working escalators in the Metro system. And the Underground is the oldest subway system in the world while Metro was built in the 1970s! In Europe the escalators and trains work because of dedicated funding and proper maintenance -- two simple solutions we have neglected to address for too long. Metro does have an ambitious plan to finally renovate its aging escalator system, but many weary Washington commuters will have to see it to believe it. Here is an example of a London Underground escalator speeding passengers to the platform.
The redeveloped terminus of St. Pancras Railway Station, where I took a Eurostar high-speed train to Brussels, has been described by the travel writer Simon Calder as "the world's most wonderful railway station". I concur. It is breathtaking, even more so now that the Olympic Rings hang from the roof in anticipation of London hosting the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
Passengers wait in modern, spacious waiting areas for Eurostar high-speed trains that will zip them to Paris or Brussels at speeds of nearly 200 miles per hour (300 kilometers per hour). As I sat and read a book in the comfortable waiting area, I thought back to the many times I've waited for an Amtrak train at New York City's Penn Station. It is an awful experience standing with your luggage in the cramped and busy main terminal while waiting to find out what gate the slow train is departing from (there are plans to build a new Penn Station at the Farley Post Office Building across the street from the current train station, an idea first proposed by the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan). Even the Acela Express train, which is America's pathetic excuse for a high speed rail train, shares the tracks with conventional rail so it only gets 60 mph (109 kph) most of the route and only briefly gets full speed at 150 mph (240 kph). But this will hopefully be changing, as Amtrak recently released a concept report which envisions 220 mph trains from Washington, D.C. to Boston on a dedicated high speed line. It would reduce travel time between D.C. and NYC to 96 minutes. I hope this happens soon.
But Amtrak is only as good as the amount of federal aid it is given, which over the years has not been nearly enough to allow for growth or even basic operations. On the contrary, European railways (with the exception of Great Britain) are heavily subsidized by central governments. High gasoline excise taxes drives up the price of fuel making driving very expensive, and land-use patterns in Europe favor density. Public transportation and intercity rail need density to thrive.
So the blame is not with Amtrak, but the federal government which developed the interstate highway system in the 1950s which made rail unprofitable. It also (unintentionally) crippled public transportation because those same interstates led to urban sprawl as people could flee the cities on freeways to cheaper houses in the suburbs and eventually to the exurbs.
Here are links, photos and videos from London.
Josh's Travel Blog London Story Links:
Summer 2011: London, England
Riding the Rails: London to Brussels
More photos from London. Click here to see the set on Flickr.
Here is video of an Underground train arriving at Heathrow station:
And here is video of me biking through Hyde Park on Barclays Cycle Hire:
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