Grounded: Adonis’s high-speed rail plans divide his critics

In an interview for Tuesday’s Guardian newspaper, Lord Adonis said: "For reasons of carbon reduction and wider environmental benefits, it is manifestly in the public interest that we systematically replace short-haul aviation with high-speed rail.”

He said plans to achieve this were already well-advanced. Among other things he expected to see details of a route connecting London to Birmingham, including the framework to extend the line northward to Scotland, to be published by the end of the year.

Consideration is also being given to the idea of running high-speed trains on the existing network, which could reduce journey times from London to Scotland to three and a half hours, he said.

Eventually the Transport Secretary would like to see the switch to rail extend beyond the UK’s boarders. "I would like to see short-haul aviation – not just domestic aviation, but short-haul aviation – progressively replaced by rail, including high-speed rail," he told the Guardian.

"If we want to see [this] progressive replacement … then we have got to have a high-speed rail system that links our major conurbations and makes them far more accessible to Europe, too."

But the pro-flying group Flying Matters is among those to have dismissed the Government’s plans as fanciful.

“The idea that high speed rail can replace all domestic and much short-haul flying just does not add up in practical terms or environmental ones,” said Flying Matter’s chairman, Brian Wilson.

“For example, to replace flights from Scotland to all the four corners of the UK, would require a high speed rail network covering the whole of the UK, not just one or two lines. Even then, the public investment required to construct such a network is eye-watering – particularly at a time of real economic difficulty.”

He added: “The second high speed rail line that the Government has proposed and the lines which the Conservatives have proposed would not be delivered until at least 2020 so any environmental savings would need to be offset with the emissions caused by the construction process leading up to then.”

Predictably, Greenpeace’s transport campaigner Vicky Wyatt took a very different line. She said: "This is an incredibly exciting announcement from a transport secretary who has at last forced the Government to grasp the potential of high-speed rail to replace millions of flights.

“If this vision becomes reality, Britain will become a cleaner, quieter country, saving huge quantities of carbon and finally building a rail network to rival our European neighbours."

She added: "The reaction of the aviation industry is entirely in character. For years they've been courted and cosseted by successive transport secretaries and are used to getting their way at every turn. Instead of standing in the way of progress the airlines should embrace this low-carbon vision.”

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