Date published: 2007/08/03
The BBC says:
The Liberal Democrats say they would put an extra £10 tax per ticket on internal flights in Britain to help fund improvements to the rail network.
They are also proposing to put a toll on road freight, while encouraging private investment in railways.
The party says it would generate £12bn in five years and be a temporary measure, without specifying how long.
The proposals are part of a package aimed at making Britain's transport system carbon neutral by 2050.
The Lib Dems will discuss the proposals at their annual conference in September.
So-called "lifeline" air routes, such as links between the Orkneys and Shetland and the mainland where travel options are limited, would not be taxed.
The flight charge would generate £150m a year, and the freight toll could raise £600m annually to be put in a "Future Transport Fund".
Lib Dem environment spokesman Chris Huhne said the flight tax would curb the growth in the internal flights and shift freight from road to rail, potentially cutting the UK's carbon emissions by more than 2.6 million tonnes a year.
...
Mr Huhne said the air market in France and Germany had been "killed" when high-speed rail alternatives were introduced, and he hoped the tax would prevent the expected growth in UK domestic flights.The freight tax would follow similar schemes used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, with truckers paying on average 11p a mile, although the charge depends on vehicle emissions.
Mr 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."
The fund would be used for high-speed rail links connecting London with Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Tyneside and Scotland in the north and Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter in the west.
It would be used to cut passenger fares; remove bottlenecks in the system at locations like Reading and Swindon; contribute to relief schemes like London's Crossrail; increase train lengths; and reopen some closed lines, such as the Oxford-Cambridge link.
More Lib Dem nonsense. The fact that the measures are allegedly "temporary" already tells you that they are up to no good. Perhaps Huhne (who was happy to fly all over Britain rather than use the railways when he was campaigning to be Lib Dem leader) would tell us why he thinks railways are allegedly so environmentally friendly. (When he talks about emissions he is only talking about direct emissions, without considering all the indirect emissions due to labour costs, etc.) If the railways are allegedly so "sustainable" then why do they need such a whacking great subsidy in order to be sustained?
Further, it is not that surprising that "lifeline" air routes will conveniently be defined to be ones where the Lib Dems have MPs (e.g. in the far reaches of Scotland). Perhaps Huhne will kindly produce a list of which routes exactly he wants to put this arbitrary tax on. Perhaps Huhne will kindly offer never to fly inside Britain ever again.
And why does he want a high-speed rail link between London and other major cities far away? And why does he want to subsidise rail fares even more than happens already? All it will do is encourage London commuters to live further and further from London. Huhne might think this is a good idea, but it is not. One of the problems in most towns near London is that London commuters price out local workers from housing. And Huhne's proposals will just make the situation far, far worse, and in towns further and further from London.
So-called environmentalists always go on about how evil it is that certain economic activities manage to externalise their costs onto other people. What Huhne is proposing is this writ large. If rail passengers are willing to pay for a high-speed link then one should be provided (and would be by the private sector), otherwise one should not.
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").