The green choice

You've probably heard of the Swedish concept of flygskam, which literally translates as "flight shame" - the growing anti-flying movement which began in Sweden in 2018 and has gained momentum ever since.

But have you heard of tågskryt? Derived from the term flygskam, this latest environmentally aware travel concept translates as "train brag". The term, which has recently been gaining traction (ha!), involves people encouraging each other to travel by train by posting pictures of their rail trips on social media with the hashtag #tågskryt.

At Rail Europe, we're all about tågskryt. Given the choice, we'll always go by train, and we're prepared to brag about it on social media too. Rail is among the most efficient and lowest emitting modes of transport. With a strong reliance on electricity, it is also the most energy diverse. Rail networks carry 8% of the world’s motorised passenger movements and 7% of freight transport, but account for only 2% of energy use in the transport sector (Source: IEA). For instance, taking the train to go from Paris to Rome, means emitting over 20 times less CO2 than doing the same journey by plane (Source: ADEME Datagir).

As humanity confronts a two-fold crisis - coronavirus and the climate - there's a general awareness growing, as shown by social movements like flygskam and tågskryt. We're all starting to thinking twice about buying that plane ticket. We're all trying to work out how best to strike a balance between what we want and what we need. And to be honest, within Europe taking the train is mostly not only the more sustainable but also the quicker choice.

It's a growing awareness that makes sense in light of the European Union's strategy to reach carbon neutrality by 2030, which requires high-speed rail traffic to double across Europe. It's a challenging objective that calls for individual commitment, one that requires us to transform our lifestyles and our modes of consumption.
Here at Rail Europe, we believe that to build a sustainable future, we need to continue developing more sustainable ways to travel. That's why, given the choice, we'll always go by train. #tågskryt.

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