Airport by rail most environmentally friendly

[December 5th 2008]

Heathrow Express has done a study which the airport by rail operator claims shows it is the most environmentally friendly way to travel to the airport.

Since it was launched in June 1998, Heathrow Express says it has regenerated enough energy to have boiled 400,000,000 kettles. The train operator has come up with this extraordinary fact using a complicated series of calculations based on how long it takes to boil a kettle and average figures for power regeneration.

The energy has been regenerated by using carbon-efficient electric trains on the electrified line from Paddington station. The class 332 trains have been fitted with electrical regenerative brakes which reduce vehicle speed by converting some of the kinetic energy into another useful form of energy.

"This was a significant commercial investment with a strong environmental return. Our regenerative braking system was one of the first introduced in the country," explains Heathrow Express managing director, Brian Raven.

"The captured energy is either stored for future use or fed back into the power system for use by other vehicles. Environmental calculations can be an extremely complex issue which is why we have used the analogy with kettles so people can understand the significant energy saving," Raven continues.

But regenerating energy is not the only benefit of the electric trains. "Another significant factor in our selection of these electric powered units is that they do not generate any emissions or harmful pollutants, helping to improve local air quality," says Raven.

Heathrow Express was one of the first train companies to be awarded the ISO 14001 standard for its environmental management system. "Heathrow Express customers are travelling on one of the most comfortable and fastest ways to the airport and we are committed to making sure our efforts help minimise the impact of these journeys on the environment," concludes Raven.

Written by: Nick Purdom

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