Train travel within the UK: an alternative for the holidays?
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Train travel within the UK: an alternative for the holidays? |
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With the festive season behind us, many people are starting to scan the horizon for the next big thing – for a lot of us that will be the annual summer holiday. This usually conjures up several ideas: time away from work, hot weather, a beach, sightseeing, good food and drink. However, holidays also usually include more difficult aspects that we tend to forget about, such as the cost (both to our pockets and to the environment) of short or long-haul flights. Holidaying in the UK may not seem as exotic as more far-flung locations, but it could provide everything you would want from a holiday at a fraction of the carbon cost. And as an extra bonus, what you save on travel you can spend on the quality of what you do, see, eat and drink throughout the holiday. If sustainability is a consideration when planning a holiday, you might give thought to how you will travel within the UK. Train travel in this country has not always been the model of efficiency, but the calculations are indisputable: it is comparable to car travel in terms of both money and time. How do trains compare? Looking at thirteen destinations within Britain, including some in Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Dorset, the Cotswolds and the Lake and Peak Districts, the average train journey is only seventeen minutes slower than the same journey from by car. Three of the journeys were actually at least half an hour faster by train (Edinburgh, London and Brighton). Furthermore, trains cannot be subject to the almost guaranteed summer traffic jams. As for cost, the cheapest fares available – this without even including discount rail cards – are on average nearly half the cost of petrol for the same journey. National Rail suggests that to get the cheapest tickets, you specify exact times rather than opt for open tickets, and that you book as far in advance as possible.
Support from tourist boards If you think that a holiday in this country could be for you, it is good to know that the authorities are aware of sustainability issues around tourism, and that the Cornish, Scottish and Welsh tourist boards actively promote sustainable tourism and advertise predominantly to UK residents. Scotland operates a green tourism business scheme, apparently the largest such scheme in Europe, which encourages its tourist businesses to be environmentally friendly via an accreditation scheme. Cornwall also adheres to this scheme, and gives information on its website about how tourists themselves can help to reduce their impact on the Cornish environment. Cornwall also hosts an annual sustainable awards event to inspire its businesses to go green. However, it is the Wales Tourist Board that seems to have tackled the issue of sustainable tourism most comprehensively. They are in the process of developing a sustainable tourist framework (a consultation document is available on request via their website), which will focus on developing a viable long-term tourist industry that, amongst other objectives, actively reduces its ecological footprint and is beneficial to local communities. The framework will look at transport issues. So far the tourist board has concentrated on improving access to public transport information for visitors. It works with organisations and businesses to integrate buses, walking and cycling into the industry. There has been a particular focus on creating suitable bus and coastal train networks for walkers. The board admits that reducing dependency on the car ‘remains a key challenge to the sustainable growth of tourism in Wales’, noting that between 2000 and 2003 only 13% of visitors arrived in Wales via public transport. The use of public transport is an integral part of sustainable tourism, and here’s hoping that it is a trend on the increase. Susie Ward |
Action for Sustainable Living, St Wilfrid's Enterprise Centre, Royce Road, Hulme, , M15 5BJ.Email: [email protected] Tel: 0845 634 4510 Fax: 0870 167 4655. |
