Get there smarter, faster and greener

Paul Ridden writes: I travel a lot. Modern working life probably means that everyone travels much more than they would like. Whether it's by trains, planes or automobiles, travel is for many of us part of our daily existence.

There are many websites that offer travel information and very useful they are too. You can find out how long a journey will take, you can find out which method of transport would be the cheapest and on some sites you can even book your tickets via an interface on the site itself. But Routerank offers all that and more, even telling you how much CO2 is produced during your journey.

For instance, say you want to get from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to Bristol. You type in your travel choices, including the day and preferred time of your required journey and hit search. After a few milliseconds the results start appearing.

By train, by car, and by plane or by a combination of all three. Departure and arrival times are listed next to each result, the cost of your journey (in the currency of your choice) is also there, there's even information on how many changes you'll be expected to make along the way.

Then there's the CO2 column, this tells you how many kilograms of CO2 will be produced by your journey so you can not only factor in the financial cost of your trip but also it's environmental cost too! Sweet.

So, we can see from our test journey that travelling from Newcastle to Bristol will cost anything between £25 by train to over £600 by using car, plane and train (although why you would even consider the latter is beyond me). The train also comes out best when CO2 emissions are taken into account, with only 15Kg, as opposed to other methods which can produce up to 250kg. Once you've decided you can click on the 'buy tickets' button (car journeys have a 'more details' button) to be taken to the site's favoured online ticket sales websites or for less convenience but more independence, you can choose to find your own method of paying for your journey.

I have found the site extremely easy to use, packed full of information (wherever you are in the world) and very fast. There's a feedback button if you feel like imparting your advice for improvements or just want to let them know how much you liked your experience. And there are customisation options for those who, like me, often find that standard options simply don't go into enough detail. All in all, well worth bookmarking. It could save you time, money and help cut down on your CO2 emissions too.

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