As a rule, taking the train instead of the plane will substantially reduce your carbon emissions – perhaps by a factor of five to ten on a domestic trip.
The benefits will be somewhat reduced as the journey gets longer. That's partly because shorter flights are more polluting per passenger mile than longer ones, but it's also because long train journeys usually necessitate sleeping onboard.
Sleeper cars usually carry fewer passengers than regular carriages, so their emissions per passenger are higher. If, as is common in some countries, the train is powered by diesel rather than electricity, then the emissions will typically be higher still. Indeed, an old diesel sleeper train travelling a long distance might emit nearly as much CO2₂per passenger as a plane.
Even then, the train will typically be greener once you consider the plane's non-CO2 warming effects, but the fact remains that long-haul rail is not by any means inherently eco-friendly.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/apr/06/aviation-q-and-a
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