Trains not planes could be the way forward
A government-funded group has proposed that the government look into improving rail infrastructure in the UK and Europe before expanding the UK’s airports.
The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) has produced a report that suggests that some of the causes of climate change could be abated if short haul flights were replaced by rail journeys.
RCEP chairman, Sir Tom Blundell said: “Short-haul passenger flights, such as UK domestic and European journeys, make a disproportionately large contribution to the global environmental impacts of air transport and these impacts are very much larger than those from rail transport over the same point to point journey.
“The fact that rail transport cannot compete at present, at least in the UK, is a consequence of several factors, but these certainly include a failure to invest in a rail infrastructure and a failure to reflect environmental externalities in the cost of air transport”.
The Commission argues that limiting airport capacity would moderate demand, and in the future would lead to greater competition for slots, encouraging airlines to abandon short-haul routes in favour of more profitable longhaul routes. To make up for this, the Commission proposes the development of rail networks around hub airports to reduce the growth of regional feeder airports.
RCEP said that the contribution of aviation to climate change is being overlooked, for example it was not included in the Kyoto Protocol. It has submitted the report to Parliament together with its response to the government’s consultation on The Future Development of Air Transport in the UK.
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