A YORK-BASED train firm has stated that affordability, reliability and environmental benefits of rail travel are significantly underestimated when compared to aviation and car travel.

London North Eastern Railway (LNER) commissioned independent research and analysis to uncover what the perceptions are about rail, aviation and car travel.

David Horne, managing director of LNER, said: "We hope that by promoting the reality of rail travel we can encourage more people to choose and think rail. By doing so, we will reduce our carbon footprint and collectively make a real difference as we all strive to reach net zero.”

A survey of 2,000 respondents commissioned by LNER and undertaken by OnePoll asked, out of the three modes of transport, what they thought would be the best for price, environmental impact, speed and reliability when travelling between Edinburgh and London.

The results found that 75 per cent of people were unaware that rail travel was the cheapest option when compared to aviation and car.

The gap between perception and reality is widest when comparing the carbon emissions of rail with other ways to travel. An Azuma train emits 97 per cent fewer emissions than a typical aircraft used on domestic routes, yet less than 10 per cent were able to identify this.

When asked what mode of transport would be the fastest, 78 per cent of people did not realise that an LNER service would get you to your central city destination within an hour of an airline, when taking into account the connecting transport required between the airports and city centres.