UK train operators are taking advantage of the green debate to lure customers from domestic flights.
GNER head of communications Alan Hyde said as the public becomes increasingly carbon conscious trains are becoming more appealing.
He said train companies are using the green issue and the convenience of railway travel with city-centre stations and its greater punctuality – in 2007 alone GNER had a 90% punctuality record as opposed to 76.3% for domestic flights – to attract more customers.
Hyde added: “What’s been fascinating is how environmentally motivated decisions have come more and more to the fore.
“I think the airlines have had their heads in the sand for too long, they treated the whole (environment) issue as one only affecting sandal-wearing lentil eaters.”
He said he expects international train operators like Eurostar to also make more of an issue about this in the future.
Research has shown that if everyone flying from London to Brussels or Paris took the train instead it would save around 200,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually, around the same amount as Oxford’s population produces each year.