Fast rail travel 'could ease capacity and help environment'
High speed rail travel could encourage people to use public transport, create investment opportunities and help solve capacity issues in the future, according to the Association of Train Operating Companies.
Hassard Stacpool, the media relations manager for the association, noted that where high speed rail is employed in other parts of the world, consumers tend to choose the railway as their preferred mode of travel.
“A lot of people within the industry think that it is important that we do build a high-speed line as far as the Midlands to help ease capacity”, he continued.
Mr Stacpool went onto say that encouraging more people to use the train would help in combating environmental problems, adding: “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.”
According to government adviser the Commission for Integrated Transport, high speed rail travel can transport 50 per cent more people than a three lane motorway in a third of the time of the equivalent road journey.
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