Swedish 'flight shame' sparks train travel trend

Public concern about climate change means many are changing their ways

A growing number of Swedish people are switching their travel habits to using trains over flying in response to increasing public concern about climate change.

"Flygskam", or flight shame, has become a social media buzzword referring to feeling guilt over the environmental effects of flying, contributing to a trend, especially among the young, to travel by train.

A survey published last week by Swedish Railways, also known as SJ, showed almost twice as many Swedes chose to travel by train instead of plane in the past year and a half — up from 20 percent to 37 percent, the pollster Sifo found.

SJ said the shift was evident in its passenger numbers: the total number of journeys on its network rose by 5 percent last year to 31.8 million, but then by a further 8 percent in the first quarter of this year, with business trips surging 12 percent.

Fewer Swedes are traveling by plane, according to Swedavia, which operates the country's 10 busiest airports. Passenger numbers dropped by 8 percent domestically and 4 percent to destinations abroad from January to April, compared to the first quarter of 2018.

It's a continuing trend: 2018 saw a 3 percent decline in domestic passenger numbers. More than half of those surveyed by Sifo, 57 percent, said they think about the environment when they travel in Sweden.

"Rail travel is soaring thanks to climate fears," said an SJ spokesman, Tobbe Lundell, adding that the operator was boosting capacity, particularly on longer routes such as between Stockholm, Malmo and Gothenburg.

The concept of "flygskam" — feeling shame about flying — gathered momentum last year and was identified as one of the most-used new words by Swedish language experts.

The notion drew media attention along with the social media campaign #jastannarpamarken, which translates as #stayontheground.

Spearheading the movement for trains-over-planes is Sweden's own Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate protestor who refuses to fly, travelling by rail to the World Economic Forum in Davos and the climate summit in Katowice, Poland.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg last year found that Swedes' per capita emissions from flying between 1990 and 2017 were five times the global average.

The Swedish Meteorological Institute has stated that the average annual temperature was rising twice as fast in the country as the global average.

Speaking to AFP, Frida Hylander, a Swedish psychologist, said shame, and the fear of being shamed, was a powerful motivator, but she also cautioned against overstating its importance.

"When it becomes more and more apparent that our flight behavior is unsustainable and we also become more aware of the acuteness of the climate crisis, I think that guilt and shame will be triggered," she added. "It doesn't have to be triggered by someone calling us out."