TGV - how energy efficient is it really?

We took another holiday, using the TGV instead of flying as our mode of transport, in August, as our attempts to keep air miles down continues.

But as we zoomed through the French countryside at 180 MPH, we wondered how efficient is the TGV, really? Or have we just bought into the hype that it is more efficient than flying? After all, I've never seen any hard statistics other than soft evidence provided by The Guardian and various news sources. So we've been told by journalists (not to be believed for the most part) that train travel is significantly greener, but with the electricity required to hurl a TGV through the countryside, and electricity plants being a major contributor to green house gases, what was real, non-hype comparison?

Or was my sudden skepticism just an excuse to trade the 5 1/2 hours on the stuffy train in for 1 hour on a plane? (Always fun going down and an absolute pain coming back.)

With a little investigating, I found some statistical information comparing the efficiency of various modes of transport, based on MPG (and L/KM) for gas consumption and MJ/KM for electricity usage.


+ Trains vs. planes vs. automobiles - oil usage (research by James Strickland)

The difference in oil consumption is clear - planes with full passenger loads use 8-9 times more oil than a full high-speed train.

The electricity consumption per KM is also very interesting to compare - as the charts show, the TGVs fare well.

I now need to find some stats to calculate what the CO2 emission is per MJ/KM produced compared to the C02 emissions per L/KM consumed so that every mile of a TGV vs. a 747, Airbus or our car can be compared for actual emissions impact. In that comparison things like energy required to extract and refine and ship the oil should be included, as well as the energy required to electricity and the impact of the infrastructure to deliver the electricity.

Way too complex for me on a Sunday afternoon. In fact, I can't believe I even constructed the sentence above. (Maybe James Strickland can help.)

Consumptions and emissions aside, one of my serious pet peeves for plane and train travel is that none of the operating company's recycle. It's completely lame that they don't sort their rubbish, especially considering that most passengers buy canned/bottled beverages.