is because of fuel prices having risen by around 13% in the last year. I suspect that also is having some impact on this.”
There can be no doubting the providence of the fi gures, Welsh insisted, as they are a di- rect comparison of CAA data with ATOC’s own.
He said: “Reading some of the coverage from regional airports, we saw that nobody has attacked the data: some of them have said ‘people are still going to want to fl y out of Newcastle’ or wherever, but the airline industry itself has been cutting back on some routes. BMI in March cut one of its London to Scotland services, and easyJet has withdrawn its two daily fl ights between Newcastle and Stansted. So, the airline in- dustry itself is reducing services on domes- tic routes.”
The need for high-speed?
Do such strong and rising fi gures not un- dermine the case for HS2, as they show such a good return on investment in tradi- tional rail services?
Not according to Welsh, who says the key factor is capacity.
He told us: “At ATOC we believe HS2 is a
good thing, as long as there is continuing investment in both high-speed rail and the existing network. What is particularly key is increasing capacity on the railways, whether HS2 or the existing networks. We believe that in the next 20 or 30 years, pas- senger demand will double. We need to increase capacity, whether that’s on the ex- isting network or HS2. HS2 would help to increase capacity.
“What these fi gures do is show that far from being a dying industry, as it was perceived 15 or 20 years ago, rail is proving that it can hold its own and expand in the 21st
century
and will continue to do so. It’s absolutely right that government is looking at ways to increase capacity.”
Airline booking for rail
There has been debate, not least in Sir Roy McNulty’s value for money study, about restricting some long-distance services to pre-booked tickets only: this is one leaf out of the airline industry’s book that Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus, has cautioned against.
Welsh wanted to wait until the fi ndings of the McNulty review have been fully digested before commenting on that, but he did say: “One of the things that is defi nitely
But no industry can afford to be complacent, Welsh warned, despite these very positive fi gures. So what more can be done?
“Train companies are absolutely commit- ted to trying to attract more people onto the railways,” he concluded. “We need to do everything we can to make it a more attrac- tive option for travel, especially on routes like these, where there is strong com- petition from other modes of travel.”
Edward Welsh
FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit
www.atoc.org
changing about how people travel is the popularity of Advance tickets. Their popularity is based on their price; they are the cheapest tickets around, and because of that there are conditions attached. You can’t just buy an Advance ticket a few minutes before you travel – though you can buy one right up to the night before in some cases. People clearly understand the proposition: we sell 800,000 advance tickets a week, up from 500,000 two years back. People are working out that this is a good way to get around the country cheaply.”
rail technology magazine Apr/May 11 | 95
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