Actually it is a heck of a lot better than an airplane. 14 diesel locomotives sounds like a lot, but that is absolute maximum power, and a TGV carries a ton of

Actually it is a heck of a lot better than an airplane. 14 diesel locomotives sounds like a lot, but that is absolute maximum power, and a TGV carries a ton of people. On routes where they are very inefficient (London-Paris as an example), you're looking at around 10 times more emissions by plane (plane 122kg vs high speed train 11kg.) On routes where they are efficient, you're looking at more around 100x more emissions by plane (65kg Paris to Lyon by plane vs 0.7kg by TGV.) Data here: https://ressources.data.sncf.com/explore/dataset/emission-co2-tgv/table/?sort=-tgv_empreinte_co2e_kgco2e_voyageur https://ressources.data.sncf.com/explore/dataset/emission-co... You'll notice that you can cross the whole of France, 1001km Lille-Marseille, for just about 1.6 kilograms CO2 per person per trip. Try that in a plane!