Call to dump domestic air travel

LONDON – The UK’s transport secretary has called for domestic air travel to be replaced by high-speed rail.

Lord Adonis said that it was “manifestly in the public interest” for all short-haul flying to be phased out and replaced by rail links.

“For reasons of carbon reduction and wider environmental benefits, it is manifestly in the public interest that we systematically replace short-haul aviation with high-speed rail,” he told The Guardian.

Domestic flights currently carry 46 million passengers a year, but Lord Adonis hopes that they could be persuaded to switch to a 250mph north-south rail line.

Lord Adonis said he hoped that all flights to Europe could eventually also be ended in favour of a better-connected rail network.

“I would like to see short-haul aviation — not just domestic aviation, but short-haul aviation — progressively replaced by rail, including high-speed rail,” he said.

“If we want to see the progressive replacement of short-haul aviation by rail, then we have got to have a high-speed rail system that links our major conurbations and makes them far more accessible to Europe, too.”