Sustainable travel award finalists unveiled

Finalists announced in the 2013 Eurostar Ashden Awards for Sustainable Travel

Four pioneering sustainable travel schemes from the UK and Belgium have been selected as finalists in the 2013 Eurostar Ashden Awards for Sustainable Travel. Each finalist is now one step closer to winning a share of the £30,000 prize fund, when the ultimate winners are announced on 20 June 2013.

The Awards, now in their second year, recognise innovative travel schemes from across the UK, France and Belgium that encourage people to adopt more sustainable ways of travelling, helping improve quality of life whilst reducing congestion, pollution, and CO2 emissions.

The finalists selected by a panel of sustainability experts are:

Metro (UK) is recognised for having reduced car commuting in West Yorkshire to 27% below the national average. Its ‘West Yorkshire Travel Plan Network’ initiative supported over 180 member companies to promote sustainable travel to their staff. The Network offered over 200,000 employees a wide range of incentives designed to help them kick their car habit. It provided its members with free, tailored advice on anything from setting up state-of-the-art facilities for cyclists to promoting car sharing.

Stagecoach (UK) has been recognised for its ‘Where you want to be’ marketing campaign, which encouraged car users to switch to public transport. The sophisticated campaign used detailed postcode mapping to identify people most likely to shift from car to bus or coach. Stagecoach targeted these travellers with creative marketing that illustrated the benefits of travelling by bus or coach vs car, along with information on alternative bus routes they could test for free. Since launching in 2003, the marketing campaigns and free trials have led to more than 120,000 car users becoming Stagecoach customers – 70% of which are now regular bus users.

Sustainable travel charity, Sustrans Limited (UK) was selected as a finalist for their five-year programme to extend the National Cycle Network into over 80 communities across the UK. Sustrans created 84 new cycling schemes nationwide, bringing over four million people to within a mile of a safer, greener transport route. New routes linked schools, hospitals and town centres to existing cycling routes and early results demonstrated that the campaign has more than trebled the number of cyclists on some routes.

Belgium based tram operator Vlaamse Vervoersmaatschappij / De Lijn (Belgium) was chosen for its project ‘Meettram’, which transformed the heating and ventilation of 40 trams. Using sophisticated monitoring systems the tram operator identified that more than half of the energy consumed by a tram on cold winter days was a result of keeping passengers warm. To help reduce this energy usage the company modified its tramcars and installed simple energy management technologies to cut down on energy used for heating. CO2 sensors were then used to monitor air quality in the tram to ensure that fresh air is drawn in and heated up only when necessary. These modifications resulted in a 20% reduction in tram energy use. Following its success the same technology was fitted to 41 existing trams in Ghent and in the coming months 84 trams in Antwerp as well as on all new trams and electric buses in Flanders.

Nicolas Petrovic, Chief Executive of Eurostar said: "The shortlist for this year’s Awards showed the breadth of innovation in sustainable travel across the UK, France and Belgium. Each of these four finalists stands from the wealth of entries and all the judges were impressed by their creative approach to promoting sustainable travel.

"From switching car users onto public transport, to growing cycling networks and finding innovative ways to reduce energy usage, we hope that by celebrating the success of these finalists we can inspire even more people to consider the environment when making their own travel choices." 

Sarah Butler-Sloss, Founder Director of Ashden added: "Our sustainable travel finalists offer inspiring examples of how to encourage people to think differently about how they travel, demonstrating that travelling by bus, bike or tram is often cheaper, easier and healthier than driving. They are also showing how public transport can be genuinely sustainable."

The 2013 Eurostar Ashden Award for Sustainable Travel culminates on 20 June at the annual Ashden Awards ceremony in London, where the achievements of all the finalists will be celebrated and where the ultimate winners will be announced.

The Eurostar Ashden Award for Sustainable Travel forms part of Eurostar’s Tread Lightly programme to reduce the business’s impact on the environment and encourage people to switch to more sustainable modes of transport. Since 2007, Eurostar has made substantial progress towards reducing carbon emissions, sourcing responsibly and recycling.

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