(London, 8 July, 2026)
Fifteen organisations, including Opportunity Green, Friends of the Earth Ireland, Stop Climate Chaos, Transport & Environment and Transport Action Network, have written an open letter urging the UK and Irish governments to take action on one of the most scalable and immediately available decarbonisation tools at their shared disposal: travel by train and ferry.
The signatories say that low awareness of the combined Sail & Rail tickets, and poor coordination between train and ferry timetables, are suppressing demand for low carbon travel and sustaining demand for highly polluting short-haul flights. They also highlight that no clear framework exists to determine who is responsible or what compensation passengers are owed when disruption crosses different operators and modes of transport.
The Dublin to London travel route was the busiest city pair in Europe for the third year running in 2024, averaging 91 flights each day. With a return flight between London and Dublin producing approximately 174.8 kg CO₂, this is roughly equivalent to two and a half months of electricity use in a typical Irish home. In contrast, Sail & Rail produces at least 73% fewer emissions – and this is before the non-CO₂ warming effects of aviation such as contrail formation are factored in – which could effectively double the climate impact of each flight.
Aoife O’Leary, CEO & Founder of Opportunity Green says:
“The solutions are straightforward, but they require coordination and political will. We have found that passengers trying to travel by Sail & Rail can be offered combinations of train and ferry times with impossible connections that cannot physically be made. This is a clear sign of a broken system that quietly pushes people towards buying a flight instead.”
Meghan Fitzpatrick, from Belfast, who works in London as a science researcher and frequently travels by Sail and Rail, says:
“Lots of people I talk to about travelling by Sail and Rail have never considered it. I’ve lived in London for over four years and it’s my go-to way of getting home to Belfast and travelling to Dublin. I can get tickets from London to Belfast for as little as £40 for the whole journey with a railcard, which is amazing! In saying that, there’s definitely lots that could be improved – for example, I wish the train and ferry companies worked together more. On a few occasions, a delay on the train has meant missing my ferry connection, and vice versa. If they teamed up and connected their timetables, it would be so much better.”
Sara Hurley, Coordinator at Stop Climate Chaos Coalition says:
“Once hidden flight costs, including baggage fees and airport transfers are factored in, travelling by Sail & Rail often works out cheaper than travelling by plane. More travellers should be made aware that there is a greener travel option available that saves them money and is far more comfortable and spacious than flying.”
The letter calls on the UK and Irish governments to:
- Formally commit to working together to improve the Sail & Rail offer on the UK–Ireland corridor.
- Convene a joint working group to address timetabling coordination and booking accuracy.
- Bring forward a clear framework for passenger rights on combined multimodal journeys.
- Fund a coordinated public awareness campaign to raise the profile of Sail & Rail as a credible, comfortable, and affordable alternative to flying.
- Engage with the EU’s Passenger Package process and introduce domestic legislation in the UK to match the EU’s emerging multimodal passenger rights framework.
ENDS
Notes to editors
Read the letter sent to the UK and Irish governments.
The letter has been signed by 15 organisations: Opportunity Green, Friends of the Earth Ireland, Stop Climate Chaos, Transport Action Network, Transport & Environment UK, Aviation Environment Federation, Feasta, Children’s Rights Over Flights, Climate Justice Universities Union, By Land and Sea.ie, Safe Landing, Flight Free UK, Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAII) England, WEAII Ireland and WEAII Scotland.
Electricity emissions equivalent calculation: A typical Irish household’s annual electricity consumption is 4,200 kWh, per the Commission for Regulation of Utilities’ typical consumption benchmark (CRU, Review of Typical Consumption Figures – Decision Paper). Applying SEAI’s official electricity consumption emission factor of 197.8 gCO2/kWh (SEAI, Conversion Factors, 2025 provisional value), this gives approximately 831 kg CO2 from electricity per year, or 2.28 kg per day. At 174.8 kg CO2, the London-Dublin return flight is therefore equivalent to roughly 77 days, or about two and a half months, of typical household electricity use.
The CRU’s 4,200 kWh benchmark was established in 2017 and is used primarily for billing comparison purposes rather than as a freshly resurveyed national average; actual household consumption varies considerably by dwelling type and heating system. CSO data (Household Electricity Consumption by Building Energy Ratings 2023, published 1 August, 2024) shows that for electrically-heated homes specifically, mean consumption in 2023 ranged from 3,783 kWh to 7,388 kWh depending on dwelling type and energy rating, so “typical” is used advisedly here rather than implying a single precise figure.