Greenpeace gives away free train tickets at airports across the UK

We completely agree that the rail service needs to be improved - we're calling for the government's subsidies to the aviation industry (billions of pounds, at the moment) to be transferred over to rail. We're calling for cheaper fares, higher capacity and better services for rail, and we're working with other groups lobbying for this.

Having said that, we also think it's important for Greenpeace to focus on aviation, to challenge its growth before it gets out of hand. There's an urgent need to cap the growth of aviation, before it wipes out our chances of tackling climate change. Challenging unnecessary domestic flights, where there is a good rail alternative, is an obvious place to start.

One of the routes we were giving out tickets for yesterday was Heathrow to Manchester, (there are over 30 flights a day between Manchester and Heathrow). The train tickets normally cost £59.50 for a two and-a-quarter hour journey; a BA walk-on ticket costs a lot more and, city centre to city centre, takes longer. There are actually quite a few domestic routes on which, outside of peak hours, getting the train is around the same price as (or cheaper than) flying and takes around the same amount of time, city centre to city centre.

But yes, there aren't nearly enough of those routes at the moment (and sorry to hear you don't live on one of them, GreenLiving!). With subsidies skewing things in favour of aviation, flying is obviously under-priced and rail transport is hugely over-priced at the moment, and there's a long way to go in improving the rail service.

Our campaign for capping aviation growth is working to this end - albeit from another angle than a campaign just working towards improved public transport. The aviation industry (particularly BA) has extremely close ties with government. BA fiercely opposes any measures that will curb growth in emissions. It's lobbying hard for airport expansion. It's launched new and completely unnecessary short haul domestic flights, like the one between Gatwick and Newquay - which is already amply served by other airlines and train lines that are 10 times less polluting.

And unfortunately, its demands are usually met – the government has actually left emissions from aviation out of its 2050 emissions targets so that aviation can keep growing unchecked.

(Chris Mullin, former minister responsible for aviation, has some telling things to say about the dodgy relationship between the aviation industry and government: "I learnt two things. First, that the demands of the aviation industry are insatiable. Second, those successive governments have usually given way to them. Although nowadays the industry pays lip-service to the notion of sustainability, its demands are essentially unchanged. It wants more of everything... airports, runways, terminals.")

That, and a lot of other factors, makes us think that unless someone intervenes, aviation will keep growing unsustainably (more runways, more flights, more routes) no matter how good public transport is. So we're intervening…

Wordily yrs,

bex
gpuk

We completely agree that the rail service needs to be improved - we're calling for the government's subsidies to the aviation industry (billions of pounds, at the moment) to be transferred over to rail. We're calling for cheaper fares, higher capacity and better services for rail, and we're working with other groups lobbying for this. Having said that, we also think it's important for Greenpeace to focus on aviation, to challenge its growth before it gets out of hand. There's an urgent need to cap the growth of aviation, before it wipes out our chances of tackling climate change. Challenging unnecessary domestic flights, where there is a good rail alternative, is an obvious place to start. One of the routes we were giving out tickets for yesterday was Heathrow to Manchester, (there are over 30 flights a day between Manchester and Heathrow). The train tickets normally cost £59.50 for a two and-a-quarter hour journey; a BA walk-on ticket costs a lot more and, city centre to city centre, takes longer. There are actually quite a few domestic routes on which, outside of peak hours, getting the train is around the same price as (or cheaper than) flying and takes around the same amount of time, city centre to city centre. But yes, there aren't nearly enough of those routes at the moment (and sorry to hear you don't live on one of them, GreenLiving!). With subsidies skewing things in favour of aviation, flying is obviously under-priced and rail transport is hugely over-priced at the moment, and there's a long way to go in improving the rail service. Our campaign for capping aviation growth is working to this end - albeit from another angle than a campaign just working towards improved public transport. The aviation industry (particularly BA) has extremely close ties with government. BA fiercely opposes any measures that will curb growth in emissions. It's lobbying hard for airport expansion. It's launched new and completely unnecessary short haul domestic flights, like the one between Gatwick and Newquay - which is already amply served by other airlines and train lines that are 10 times less polluting. And unfortunately, its demands are usually met – the government has actually left emissions from aviation out of its 2050 emissions targets so that aviation can keep growing unchecked. (Chris Mullin, former minister responsible for aviation, has some telling things to say about the dodgy relationship between the aviation industry and government: "I learnt two things. First, that the demands of the aviation industry are insatiable. Second, those successive governments have usually given way to them. Although nowadays the industry pays lip-service to the notion of sustainability, its demands are essentially unchanged. It wants more of everything... airports, runways, terminals.") That, and a lot of other factors, makes us think that unless someone intervenes, aviation will keep growing unsustainably (more runways, more flights, more routes) no matter how good public transport is. So we're intervening… Wordily yrs, bex gpuk