http://www.transport-watch.co.uk/tra...athematics.htm
one highlight:
But surely rail is at least fuel efficient? Probably the most recent data in the land is that provided by British Rail in 1990. Certainly today it appears impossible to obtain system wide fuel consumptions. The 1990 data shows that, in that year, the fuel consumption per passenger-mile by national rail was equivalent to 83 per gallon for Network South East, 64 for provincial services and 112 for intercity - generally worse than a diesel powered family car containing two people.
A quick google suggests about 80 passenger-miles to the imperial gallon across air travel as a whole.
Anyone care to do a back of a fag packet calculation for a modern turboprop?
pb