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Major Transport Routes 2

BTEC Travel and Tourism

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The Holiday Experience

• Last session focussed on the modes of transport used by consumers of travel and tourism services

• We saw that air travel is the most popular mode of transport for visits to and from the UK

• Why is this and what are the alternatives?

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Air Versus Rail

• Rail is far more energy efficient than air travel

• It produces less harmful greenhouse gas emissions

• But it costs more generally to travel by rail than air

• Aviation fuel is untaxed, a major factor in low cost air travel

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Airport Capacity

• Heathrow and Gatwick airports became more congested

• Government policy encouraged expansion of regional airports

• This boosted their appeal to people travelling from the regions

• This is the case for domestic as well as overseas air travel

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How Rail Has Failed

• Chronic under-investment for decades• High profile accidents at Hatfield

and Potters Bar sparked public safety concerns and worsening rail performance

• Train journeys seen as expensive, crowded and unreliable

• All have led to growth in domestic air travel

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New Age of the Train?

• Improvements to rail infrastructure such as West Coast Mainline

• Reduced journey times as infrastucture is upgraded

• Popularity of rail link to continent as result of Channel Tunnel and Eurostar

• Impact of Channel Tunnel Rail Link on journey times

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Why Use Rail?• Improved speed and efficiency• Far better environmental pollution

record• Transport direct into town and city

centres in contrast to some low-cost airline routes

• Customer satisfaction at lack of check-in and improved comfort (in newer trains)

• Positive impact of journey becomes part of overall holiday experience

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What Next?

• Go to the Activity to find out more• And research into the relative cost

of these different modes of transport