High-Speed Rail Connections Encourage Green Travel

High-speed rail connections would encourage more holidaymakers to take advantage of green travel options, says one industry expert.

According to the Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc), high-speed rail would also help solve capacity issues, although there is still some way to go in implementing such a service.

Hassard Stacpool, media relations manager at Atoc, said: "Experience on the continent shows that when high-speed lines are invested into they do attract passengers away from the airlines and the roads so it is certainly part of the long-term solution."

Mr Stacpool added that "a lot of people within the industry" consider building a high-speed rail line as up far up the country as the midlands "important".

According to research published by the Commission for Integrated Transport, Britain is way behind other European and Asian countries in terms of developing a high-speed rail network.

Furthermore, the commission notes that high-speed rail has a capacity 50 per cent larger than a three-lane motorway and a journey by train on this type of service takes around a third of the time of an equivalent trip by road.

Travel Industry News posted on 22/04/2008 08:32:28