"The cost to the environment may be greater, but regretably, if we want to travel to do the things we enjoy, our finances mean we don't really have the option to be greener."

Er, perhaps you could do things that don't need air travel. You're absolutely correct about the cost of rail travel being prohibitive - the whole pricing policy is absolutely ridiculous and needs to be looked at long and hard (but then this is what happens if you privatise your railways).

We need a paradigm shift in our approach to travel in order to help combat our environmental problems, and this needs to come from individuals. We all need to face up to our responsibilities here - big business donesn't give a shit about the environment as it's led by the markets. If consumers change their habits, business will adapt and service those changes. All that bilge about carbon offsetting is an excuse to avoid changes to the fuundamental causes of carbon emmissions - how we travel. Rail could play such a major role in these changes, but it has to be consumer-led.

Of course, the main problem for us rich westerners is we will not be paying directly for our own actions when it comes to air travel or our SUVs. Next time you settle down into your aircraft seat or rev up your Mercedes 4WD, have a good think about the people who will be paying - down on the Ganges delta where they will be flooded out of their homes, watching their children crap themselves to a miserable death with dysentry or typhoid they caught from the rising flood waters.

It ain't easy changing these habits, and I don't advocate the banning of air travel (I can't afford to fly at all, but would do occasionally perhaps) but unless we take individual responsibility for our actions then we are, as I'm sure we would all agree, "totally fucked".

(BTW, the Manchester MetroLink (they're trams) is a wonderful project. If you live on the route (as my dad does) you get cheap, clean reliable transport that provides an excellent service).