Tories encourage rail travel to foreign holidays

The Conservatives are saying that additional high-speed services available on the continent mean that holidaymakers can more realistically consider train travel for destinations farther than Brussels or Paris.

When holidaymakers add the time it takes to travel to and from airports to the time spent in long check-in and security queues at airports, flights to major cities in Europe are often only slightly shorter than taking the train, according to the shadow transport secretary, Theresa Villiers.

She also said that travellers should consider the impact of their chosen means of transport on the environment: “We feel its part of our job to encourage people to make greener choices and to give them attractive, greener transport alternatives. In the relatively near future it won’t be that unusual for people to take the train to the South of France.”

The Tories are rejecting the government’s plan to construct a third runway at Heathrow, and a sixth terminal there, by 2020, saying that they feel it would be more responsible to spend £16 billion on a high-speed rail line linking London with cities in the north, including Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, by 2027.

Villiers added that the Conservatives also oppose the construction of new runways at Gatwick and Stansted airports. The government is backing an additional runway at Stansted by 2015, and is considering an added runway at Gatwick by 2019 – if the expansion at Heathrow does not proceed.

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