Carbon footprint effects of shifting from flights to night trains for Swedish tourism
Journal article, 2023

Changes in travel behaviour are needed to tackle the climate impact associated with long-distance flights, including a switch to sustainable transport modes. In this paper, we analyse scenarios of carbon footprint reduction associated with a switch from flights to night trains for holidays in Europe for the case of Sweden, including outbound, inbound and domestic tourism. We use a prospective lifecycle assessment framework combined with results from a stated preference experiment to determine the impact of future mode shift behaviours. Our results indicate that a mode shift could be triggered by progressive night train policies resulting in (i) fewer transfers and (ii) price levels similar to those of flights. The shifts from flights to night trains could result in 9% lower cumulative carbon footprint in relation to a baseline travel demand scenario for the period 2025–2050. Decarbonization of long-distance travel in line with the Paris Agreement would likely require a combination of many different types of measures including a shift to low-carbon fuels.

Stated preference experiment

Prospective lifecycle assessment

Night trains

Carbon footprint

Long-distance travel

Flights

Author

Johannes Morfeldt

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Riccardo Curtale

European Commission (EC)

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Anneli Kamb

Mid Sweden University

Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

Jörgen Larsson

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Jonas Nässén

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Published in

Journal of Cleaner Production

0959-6526 (ISSN)

Vol. 420 art. no 138321

Research Project(s)

On track to climate neutral long-distance travel 2045 - technology, travel patterns, high-altitude impact

VINNOVA (2019-03233), 2019-11-05 -- 2023-06-30.

MISTRA Carbon Exit Phase 2

The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (Mistra) (MISTRACarbonExitPhase2), 2021-07-01 -- 2025-03-31.

Mistra Sustainable Consumption

Mistra Innovation (123), 2022-01-01 -- 2025-12-31.

Categorizing

Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)

Transport Systems and Logistics

Energy Systems

Identifiers

DOI

10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138321

More information

Latest update

3/10/2025