Reference Donald Reid’s letter urging people NOT to fly (January 5), may I urge people to travel by train even to Barcelona via the Eurotunnel.

Moreover rail travel is the greenest form of powered motion in getting from anywhere to anywhere in Europe and Asia, and even Africa.

It is the UK’s greatest contribution to green powered travel thanks to the Stephensons, both George and Robert, from the 1830s on, and, now thanks to another two Brits, Michael Faraday and Charles Parsons.

Read more: 'Please stop flying, the planet's dying'

In fact, modern electric trains get their electric power from the Parsons steam turbine, as used in the Drax power station in Yorkshire, which uses the latest green fuel ie wood pellets.

Even the world’s most powerful warship the USS Pennsylvania class nuclear submarine gets all its electric lighting and heating power from a Parsons steam turbine, which is gazetted in the official USS specification.

To the Science Museum, London, take note.

Ron Pearse

Nascot Street, Watford