According to a new report by the sustainable transport alliance TRANSform Scotland, worsening delays at Gatwick and Heathrow airports are seeing more people take to the rail between central Scotland and London.
Rail is also more popular than air on routes between London and Manchester and Liverpool. The study also suggests that rail can win over even longer distances than previously thought.
The report named Railways Mean Business contradicts popular conceptions about train travel, including the belief that air travel is cheaper. More business people, for example, are switching business from air to rail travel on the Edinburgh and Glasgow to London routes. Eco concerns are not the only advantage to taking the train, according to the study.
Reasons for taking the train to and from London include arriving on time more often, getting more value for money from the journey by working or relaxing, and the journey not taking significantly longer between city centres than those who fly.
Rail punctuality
The report highlights rail punctuality as more than 20 percentage points better than air on Glasgow and Edinburgh to London routes. This conclusion comes in the wake of this month's revelation that Gatwick and Heathrow had the worst records for delayed departures and are among the worst for arrivals of all the main European airports this summer.
Virgin Trains also recorded an increase in passenger numbers, up by 35 per cent compared to two years earlier.
According to the latest Civil Aviation Authority figures, 44 per cent of flights between Glasgow and Gatwick and 35 per cent of flights between Glasgow and Heathrow were more than 15 minutes late in August.
The report calls for improvements to make rail travel even more attractive, including changes to schedules, encouragement of environmentally-friendly company travel schemes, incentives for regular customers, easier facilities for booking and healthier menus. Rail operators should "target investment and marketing so that trains are seen as a mobile office, and that travelling by rail is considered part of the working day."
It added: "A rail journey might take an hour longer, but rail travel will result in less lost work time, a richer environment in which to work, and a less stressful journey."
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Date Published: November 22, 2007
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