Train Route

This category allows you to create profile items that represent a journey between two train stations. CarbonKit will determine the route and calculate the distance and emissions. At present, our database contains over 2800 UK stations with all mainline UK train stations supported.

See the UK train stations page for further details of stations coverage.

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Using this methodology

Choosing a specific activity type

There are no drill down choices necessary. All variables (departure and destination stations, train types) are specified as profile item values (see below).

Activity data required

To use this category, users must specify the names of two stations and a 'train type' which indicates the emissions factor which is to be used for the emissions calculation.

Stations: To specify the journey, set the profile item values station1 and station2 to the names or codes of any two stations. If a train station name does not exactly match one held in CarbonKit then a fuzzy match will be attempted. This means you can either specify the train station explicitly, such as London Euston, or simply specify London as the train station.

The route will be determined based on all open lines with scheduled services as of October 2009. If no reasonable or realistic route can be found between two stations CarbonKit will return a HTTP 400 BAD REQUEST error. This would arise, for example, in those cases where two stations are physically close to one another but not linked directly by rail.

Train types: Users can obtain emissions calculation using either representative data on generic train types, or data specific to particular types of train. To specify the type of train the trainType profile item value must make reference to one of the trains represented in any of the following methodologies:

• General passenger rail transport: value = one of the rail subtype choices (e.g. light rail and tram)
• Rail transport on specific electric-powered trains: value = one of the UK-based type choices (e.g. Class 390 Pendolino EMU 11-car)
• Rail transport on specific diesel-powered trains: value = one of the UK-based type choices (e.g. Class 220 Voyager)

Should an invalid train type be entered, a value of zero will be returned together with an error message.

Occupancy: By default, the returned emissions will be kgCO2 per passenger, though this can be overridden to give the emissions for any number of passengers by setting the passengers profile item value. A default occupancy of 31% is assumed, but this can be overriden by specifying the occupancy profile item value.

Calculation and result

The returned quantities for this methodology represent CO₂ emissions associated with the journey specified. The following discrete amounts are returned:

• CO2: CO₂ emissions
• distance: calculated distance in kms