NEWS RELEASE - Friday 29th November 2002

Scottish air expansion plans undermine rail strategy - says Government's leading environmental advisors

A highly critical report from the Government's leading environmental advisory body, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP), today highlights the inconsistency of Scottish Executive subsidies for air transport and demands that resources be diverted into development of high-speed rail services. TRANSform Scotland today called for the government's flawed consultation on air transport to be relaunched with proper consideration given to the climate change and rail service implications of subsidising the air transport industry.

The RCEP's report 'The Environmental Effects of Civil Aircraft in Flight', published today, concludes that "rail transport is demonstrably more sustainable than air transport" (section 5.19), that "a failure to invest in rail infrastructure and a failure to reflect environmental externalities in the cost of air transport" undermine the viability of rail (5.20), and that "it is essential that the government should divert resources into encouraging and facilitating a modal shift from air to high-speed rail" (5.20) [1].

Colin Howden, TRANSform Scotland Campaign Manager, said:
"The Royal Commission for Environmental Pollution spells out the damaging impact on rail services resulting from the failure for air transport to pay for its environmental impacts. The Scottish Executive should reconsider its recent subsidies for air transport companies and direct the money instead to planning for enhanced high-speed rail services to England and near-Europe destinations. The RCEP point out that the air transport industry is already subsidised because it pays no tax on the fuel it uses: it is therefore inconsistent for the Scottish Executive to hand over even more subsidies to the air transport industry." [2]

"The Scottish Executive must now relaunch its flawed consultation on air transport with proper consideration given to the environmental consequences of catering for the uncontrolled growth in air transport and with a strategy to switch short-haul air trips to high-speed rail."

The RCEP also highlight:
¥ the inconsistency of facilitating growth growth in air transport with climate change and sustainable development (sections 5.2 - 5.3)
¥ that the failure for the air transport industry to pay for its external costs through an aviation fuel tax or an emissions charge represents a "large subsidy at the expense of other modes of transport" (sections 5.6 - 5.7)

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

[1] From the Royal Commission for Environmental Pollution's report 'The Environmental Effects of Civil Aircraft in Flight':

"5.19 Currently 18% of passengers are carried on domestic flights; so encouraging a shift away from the use of air transport over such distances, and even those on shorter European flights, could reap considerable environmental benefits as well as relieving pressure on major airports. Rail transport is demonstrably more sustainable than air transport, as illustrated in paragraph 4.39. While it is not a viable alternative to long or medium-haul air journeys, it ought to be a serious competitor to short-haul flights." [our emphasis]

"5.20 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 rail infrastructure and a failure to reflect environmental externalities in the cost of air transport. Instead of encouraging airport expansion and proliferation, for internal UK travel and some intra-European journeys, it is essential that the government should divert resources into encouraging and facilitating a modal shift from air to high-speed rail." [our emphasis]

The full report is available at http://www.rcep.org.uk

[2] Earlier this month, First Minister Jack McConnell announces £6 million subsidy to BAA to subsidise reduced charges for airline companies (see e.g. The Herald or the Scotsman, 19/11/02).

[3] See Airport Watch's website http://www.airportwatch.org.uk for more information on the social and environmental consequences of air transport growth.