High-speed rail
Energy efficiency

Travel by rail is more competitive in areas of higher population density or where gasoline is expensive because conventional trains are more fuel-efficient than cars when ridership is high, similar to other forms of mass transit. Very few high-speed trains consume diesel or other fossil fuels but the power stations that provide electric trains with electricity can consume fossil fuels. In Japan (prior to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster) and France, with very extensive high-speed rail networks, a large proportion of electricity comes from nuclear power. On the Eurostar, which primarily runs off the French grid, emissions from traveling by train from London to Paris are 90% lower than by flying. In Germany 38.5% of all electricity was produced from renewable sources in 2017, however railways run on their own grid partially independent from the general grid and relying in part on dedicated power plants. Even using electricity generated from coal, fossil gas or oil, high-speed trains are significantly more fuel-efficient per passenger per kilometer traveled (despite the greater resistance to motion of the railcars at higher speeds) than the typical automobile because of economies of scale in generator technology and trains themselves, as well as lower air friction and rolling resistance at the same speed.
punctuation:no_comma