Lib Dems 'get serious on rail'

The Liberal Democrats have unveiled plans to impose a £10 passenger charge on domestic flights to help fund rail investment and reduce carbon emissions from transport.

Proposals in a policy paper on transport and climate change, published on Friday, focus on improving the railways to make trains the "travel mode of choice".

The plans will be put to the Lib Dem conference in September for approval.

In what the Lib Dems described as a policy of "getting serious about rail", there were also plans to introduce road tolls on freight vehicles which could raise about £600m per year.

Up to £200m would come from the temporary domestic flight charge - which aims to "bring an incentive" to encourage the individual passenger to change their habits - and there would be a £2,000 tax on the most gas-guzzling cars.

Under Lib Dem calculations, this could release £12bn to double spending on rail improvements over five years.

Other measures to encourage people to travel by rail, rather than air, would see high-speed railways replacing flights, with exemptions for "lifeline" areas where air travel is the only option.

A 'future transport fund' would be set up to pay for high-speed rail links around the UK.

Lib Dem environment spokesman Chris Huhne said: "Plans to improve the railways must not be scuppered yet again by public spending constraints.

"The future transport fund will provide ring-fenced funding for the improvements that future generations need if we are to cut our carbon emissions.

"These plans will shift freight from road to rail, cut carbon and improve mobility, as the rail network begins to run out of capacity."

Criticising Gordon Brown's green credentials as chancellor as "very weak", he said the Lib Dems was the only party to recognise that aviation is under-taxed.

Transport spokesman Susan Kramer stressed the importance of taking freight off the roads, saying this could convince people to choose rail over aviation which "can really start to make a difference to our environment".

"Rail is the key to cleaning up Britain's transport, not an added extra, as ministers seem to think," she said.

"These plans look to 2015 and beyond when the rail network will be reaching full capacity."

She described the recent Department for Transport white paper as "completely inadequate in terms of vision for the future" and warned that "substantial" investment was needed to secure a rail network "that our children and grandchildren need".

"We must modernise our transport infrastructure, or serious economic consequences will follow in the future," Kramer said.