Trains on Trial
200 years since the first passengers took to the rails, Rare Earth asks whether train travel is going to save the planet, or whether it helped to break it in the first place.
It's 200 years since the first passenger rail journey saw George Stephenson’s Locomotion No.1 travel 26 miles between Shildon, Darlington and Stockton. Environmentalists love trains - making a journey by rail can be up to 80% greener than doing it by car - and there are exciting new inventions hoping to make train travel even greener. But can we pin part of the blame for global warming on the invention of the railways in the first place?
Presented by Tom Heap and Helen Czerski
Produced by Beth Sagar-Fenton
Assistant Producer: Toby Field
Rare Earth is produced in association with the Open University
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Broadcast
- Fri 26 Sep 2025 12:04ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4
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Rare Earth
Tom Heap and Helen Czerski dig deeper into the biggest environmental issues on the planet.