Sir Richard Branson is urging British citizens to stop taking domestic flights to help reduce the damage aviation does to the environment. The Virgin boss, a recent high-profile convert to the dangers of global warming, risks his call being dismissed as self-serving because he runs two train franchises.
'People should think twice before flying domestically,' the owner of the Virgin Cross Country and Virgin West Coast networks told the Friends of the Earth magazine Earthmatters. 'Domestic air travel is twice as damaging as international air travel and yet there is a clean alternative - the
train.'
Today, in The Guardian, we learn why:
A hot drink, a fresh newspaper and a five-hour spin up the spine of Britain on one of Richard Branson's gleaming, leaning trains must be the nicest way to travel from Glasgow to London. But from this morning, you will pay a staggering £240 for a standard open return, an 8.1% increase on last year's marginally less eye-popping £222 Virgin fare.
This is the fourth consecutive year of inflation-busting rises in how much it costs to travel by train. Ticket prices set by the government, including season tickets and savers, will today increase by an average of 4.3% - 1% above inflation - while unregulated fares (60% of all tickets) go up by an average of 4.7%.
£240 for a standard return! There is something seriously wrong with our rail system.
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