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The Dublin–London route was the busiest air corridor in Europe for the third year running in 2024, averaging 91 flights every day. Yet a lower-carbon alternative already exists.
Sail and Rail tickets combine train and ferry travel between Britain and Ireland in a single fare, with prices starting from as little as £40 – often cheaper than flying once baggage fees and airport transfers are factored in.
A return flight between London and Dublin produces approximately 174.8 kg of CO₂ (calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator) – equivalent to around two and a half months of electricity use in a typical Irish home. Travelling by train and ferry produces at least 73% fewer emissions1, and that’s before accounting for the non-CO₂ warming effects of aviation, such as contrail formation, which could effectively double the climate impact of each flight.
The issue
For all its climate and cost advantages, real barriers stand in the way of the combined Sail and Rail ticket:
Firstly, there is low awareness of the combined ticket – people can’t choose an option they don’t know exists. Secondly, there is often poor coordination between train and ferry companies, so timetables often don’t align, leading to long waits at the ferry port or train station.
Added to this, booking platforms sometimes sell connections that are impossible to make, and don’t always make it obvious how to purchase the combined ticket on their platforms.
Finally, rights for travellers using multimodal transport are unclear: when disruption crosses operators, passengers don’t know who is responsible or what compensation they’re owed. While the EU is currently reviewing multimodal passenger rights, policies would need to be adopted by both the UK and Ireland to be effective. These barriers result in the low-carbon option being harder to find, harder to book, and riskier to rely on than it should be.
Why this matters
Both the UK and Ireland have made legally binding net-zero commitments, and both are falling short. Aviation is a major and growing part of the problem: it accounted for 6% of Ireland’s national emissions in 2024, and the UK’s Climate Change Committee projects that aviation’s share of UK emissions could more than double by 2035.
Making travel by train and ferry easier to book and trust is one of the simplest, most immediate ways the UK and Ireland can cut transport emissions. The solutions aren’t complex or costly, but they do require coordination and political will. That’s why Opportunity Green has coordinated an open letter, signed by 15 partner organisations, including Friends of the Earth Ireland, Stop Climate Chaos, Transport & Environment and Transport Action Network, calling on both governments to act.
↩ [1] Seat61.com, CO2 Emissions: Train & Ferry versus Plane, www.seat61.com/CO2flights.htm. Note: emissions figures vary by calculator and methodology; this figure does not account for the non-CO2 warming effects of aviation, which could effectively double the climate impact of each flight.
