The new transport secretary, Lord Adonis, believes a 200mph high-speed rail network in Britain will spell the end for domestic flights and short flights to Europe. In his first interview since joining the cabinet, Adonis said the market for internal flights would collapse within the next 20 years as the train becomes the preferred mode of travel.

The proposed high-speed rail network would cut journey times from London to Manchester to 1hr 22min and Glasgow to 2hr 42min. Adonis envisages that it could use French-style TGV trains.

He said high-speed rail would also replace flights from Britain to destinations including Amsterdam, Brussels, Cologne, Lyon and Rotterdam. He believes the rise of high-speed rail will help to cut carbon emissions and offer passengers more comfortable and enjoyable journeys than travelling by plane.

"High-speed rail is not only important for providing additional rail capacity between our biggest conurbations. I would like to see domestic and short-haul flights largely replaced by high-speed rail over the next 20 years," he said. "The evidence internationally is that passengers want to have the choice of making these journeys by train rather than plane, because [trains offer] greater convenience, comfort and [are] much less hassle than going through airports. This is not about the government dictating to people how to travel, but the free choices that people make when they are offered a viable and attractive alternative to flying."

Read the full article in The Sunday Times.


On the face of it, this is excellent news: the transport secretary in favour of high speed rail at the expense of short-haul flights.

However Adonis also says that Heathrow is running at 99% capacity (doesn't he follow the news? - Heathrow's utilisation is plummeting like a stone with the number of passengers falling by almost 4% last month alone) and "remains committed to a third runway at Heathrow, insisting the extra capacity will be needed because of an increase in long-haul flights."

OK, so the government said a third runway won't be used for larger aircraft. Adonis says it's needed because of an increase in long-haul flights.

How do they square that one? In the usual way - they'll get BAA to make up some new figures to show that short-haul aircraft can fly to Australia. And with no increase in noise or emissions.

Just wait for it...