17 June 2009
Transform Scotland welcomes Virgin Trains ambitions for Glasgow to London traffic
Commenting on
Virgin Trains' ambitions for Glasgow to London traffic, Transform Scotland Chair Paul Tetlaw said:
"We welcome Virgin Trains' ambition to capture a much larger share of the Glasgow to London traffic. "While it is good news that rail's market share on the Glasgow to London route has risen to 11% this still leaves 89% who choose to fly on this key route. By European standards this is frankly absurd for a journey of only 400 miles between major population centres. "There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that rail can capture at least 50% of the market if journey times are reduced below 4 hours and we believe that this can be done on the West Coast Main Line. "At at time when the Scottish Parliament is about to pass legislation requiring massive reductions in carbon emissions we should be looking at every opportunity in the transport field to switch journeys to lower carbon modes. The Central Scotland - London routes need to be high up the agenda."