Trains offer the best of green mobility solutions

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The transport industry in India is now coming under a huge amount of scrutiny where issues of the environment and sustainability are concerned. Companies are under increasing pressure to prove that they are operating in an environmentally sound way and are therefore putting in place initiatives that are providing best practices for long-term sustainable growth and development. The challenge is for companies to explore the full potential in the emerging markets and help them develop faster, without significantly damaging the environment.

Worldwide, transportation accounts for 20% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Road transportation accounts for 84% of that total, air transportation for 15%, and rail transportation for 1-2%. That explains why rail transportation is seen as a viable option in efforts to further sustainable development agenda, and to tackle the expected rise in passenger transportation requirements, especially in densely populated countries like India. Forecasts suggest that passenger transportation across Europe alone (25 countries) will swell about 40% by 2030. Growing high-speed and very-high-speed railroad networks, paired with faster commercial train services, are providing a natural alternative to flying. Regional and intercity services, for their part, are emerging as a viable alternative to driving on the strength of rising quality, comfort and reliability standards today.

The transportation sector’s environmental challenge is paired with a mobility issue. The population concentration in cities is bottlenecking roads. Increased automobile use, together with urbanisation, also means that there is an increasing strain on the existing infrastructure. Rail transportation is seen as a promising alternative to driving—and to the associated problems of pollution, stress, higher costs and wasted time that the latter entails. India too is turning towards rail transportation as an alternative in transportation solutions, especially given the sheer strength of the population in the metro cities alone.