Let the train take the holiday strain

The Conservative party in the UK is calling on consumers to consider using European high-speed train services rather than the plane for holidays on the continent. With the travel industry coming to terms with cimate change (this week’s World Travel Market at Excel in London’s Docklands hosts the Responsible Toursim Conference) the Tories point out that train travel is actually quicker than flying to a number of destinations when check in time and travel to and from airports is taken into account - the new high-speed Eurostar services to Paris and Brussels are substantially quicker than flying and at desitinations such as Frankfurt and Amsterdam the difference in marginal. But the Tories say that even on longer journeys the train could be a better, greener choice with Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers saying “we feel its part of our job to encourage people to make greener choices and give them attractive greener transport initiatives”.  The party are proposing a freeze on runway capacity at airports with passengers moving to high speed rail travel - Villiers pointed to the growing popularity of the ’ski train’ which takes skiers directly from London to the Alps overnight. Villiers also pointed out that train travel was comfy, avoided lengthy check-ins, didn’t have weight restrictions and is ”city centre to city centre” process.   In September the Tories rejected Government plans for a new Heathrow runway, saying the money would be better spent on a new high speed rail line linking London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. The French and Spanish high-speed networks are due to be joined in February 2009 by a tunnel through the Pyrenees and the European high-speed network is due to triple in length to from 5000km to 15000 km by 2020.