RAIL TO THE COP – CLIMATE TRAIN CONTINUES ONTO GLASGOW

On Saturday 30th October our Ian McDonald went to meet and greet the 500 or so politicians, journalists, lobbyists, railway employees and climate activists who arrived on the specially chartered Eurostar train. Staff from Network Rail, Eurostar, and Avanti West Coast were there to greet them. Many others were waiting at St Pancras International to make sure they received a warm welcome to the UK. They were then escorted in small groups on foot to Euston station about 10 minutes walk away. While chatting to various people Ian noted that apart from Belgium, Netherlands and Germany there were people who had come by train from as far afield as Italy and Denmark.

Avanti West Coast then pulled out all the stops at Euston by opening up a normally closed side entrance so that they could go straight onto the platform where their train to Glasgow was waiting on platform 1. This Pendolino train had been specially re- liveried with the message in large letters “Save the Planet”. The train then left on time and arrived on time in Glasgow , despite the poor weather conditions earlier in the day.

Unfortunately, there was not a great amount of press coverage of this event. This was in contrast to coverage given to Greta Thunberg arriving in Glasgow on a different train. Let us now hope that something positive comes out of Transport Day at COP 26 on the 10th November.