Trains or planes?

. Brussels is urging that for journeys of around 500 km, rail should be the dominant method of public passenger transport. Yet two recent presentations at the Royal Aeronautical Society have cast doubt on this policy. Dr Jurgen Weber, then Chief Executive of Lufthansa, told the Society that the attempt to substitute trains for planes on the 160 km Stuttgart – Frankfurt route had resulted in a loss of traffic to competitors at Amsterdam, London, and Paris. Six daily flights have been restored, though there are still six trains. Mr Joseph Canny, then US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Transport spoke of the impact of low cost airlines on the US passenger rail system, and interviewed after his presentation, attributed its financial problems largely to this competition. America has had low cost airlines since the late 1960s, but they first appeared in Britain as a significant factor in 1995, and even more recently on the Continent. So far, their impact on overall policy making has been very limited, though it is emerging as a significant factor in the current UK airport capacity debate. Recent data suggests that Eurostar has been losing out to what they have described as “low value” airlines and Anglo-Scottish and other long distance services in Britain have also been affected. In 1994, the Royal Commission on Environment Pollution reported that internal flights used up to four times as much energy as rail. On the other hand, the Royal Aeronautical Society paper “Greener by Design”, using 1997 data, stated that the difference was 15%. Now the airlines are claiming that the gap has been closed. Programme Programme: 09.30 Registration and Coffee 10.00 Chairman’s Introduction Michael Woods, Chairman, Institute of Logistics and Transport (ILT) Public Policies Committee, UK 10.15 Meeting The Demand For Long-Haul Passenger Transport in The Community in a Sustainable Fashion John Hugh Rees, Head of Unit DG TREN B1, European Commission, Belgium 10.45 The Role and Economics of Long Haul Passenger Rail Dr Andy Heslop, Department Manager of Policy and Economics, AEA Technology, UK 11.15 Coffee 11.30 The Role And Economics of Short Haul Air Transport Chris Tarry, Chairman, Ctaira, UK 12.00 Let The Plane Take The Strain! Jim French, Managing Director, FlyBE, UK 12.30 Panel Discussion 13.00 Keynote Address Tony McNulty MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Transport, UK 13.30 Lunch 14.30 AIRail in Germany Wolfgang Weinert, Project Manager Intermodal Transport, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Germany 15.00 Tea 15.15 The Terraplane: Rail And The Environment Adrian Lyons, Director General, The Railway Forum, UK 15.45 Environmental Considerations of Air Transport Hugh Somerville, Member of Greener By Design Committee, RAeS, UK 16.15 Panel Discussion 16.30 Chairman’s Summary 16.40 Close of Conference Who Should Attend? Speaker Tony McNulty is Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Transport. Previously (from May 2002) he was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. He has been the Member of Parliament for Harrow East since 1 May 1997. Further information is available from: Conference Department Royal Aeronautical Society 4 Hamilton Place London W1J 7BQ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7670 4345 Fax: +44 (0)20 7670 4349 Email: conference@raes.org.uk Royal Aeronautical Society Conference email address VENUE Royal Aeronautical Society, 4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ, UK. TS