Better Transport

The Government should:

• Tax aviation fairly. Airplane fuel is not taxed at all; there is no VAT on air travel or even new aircraft when they are bought. And airport landing fees are much lower than they should be because they are cross-subsidised by retail sales from airport shops.
• Withdraw support for airport expansion plans and seek EU agreement for slot auctions at congested airports. In addition to extra flights that would be catered for by airport expansion, more traffic would be generated by travellers. The proposed third runway at Heathrow is predicted to cause 10 million extra car journeys a year.
• Make rail a better alternative to flying. Rail travel should be a viable substitute for short-haul flights (as our chair, John Stewart, recently showed in a report for the union RMT). Around 45% of air journeys in Europe are currently 500 kilometres or less in length; ideal for rail. But if rail is to compete with flying for many of these journeys, the Government must invest aviation tax revenues in making it faster and cheaper. It should improve rail links, increase capacity and stop above-inflation increases in train fares. You can find out more in our rail section.
• Enable businesses to reduce their flights. To make trains more attractive to business travellers, the Government should enable Wi-Fi services and power points to be provided across the rail network. It should also work closely with businesses to increase the take-up of teleconferencing technology. In October 2008 we released research showing how better alternatives to flying could cut the need for business flights. You can read the full research (PDF, 1.23MB) or a two-page summary (PDF, 36K).
   

We're showing how it can be done

• We wrote to the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, in October 2009, offering more detail about how taxation could be used to tackle climate change.
• We responded to the consultation on the proposed expansion of Heathrow Airport in February 2008 by showing how the Government could increase rail use and eliminate the need for aviation expansion.
• We published research in November 2008 that showed the Government how it could cut domestic aviation by 30%.