Far more corporate travellers are using rail rather than flights on key UK and European routes, according to a report by travel management company Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT).
Comparative bookings from the fourth quarter in 2007 show that on popular domestic routes from London, rail is the clear favourite ” 87% booked a train to Leeds compared to 13% flying, while rail sales to Newcastle led by 22%.
Likewise, 30% more travellers took the train to Paris, and 32% more to Brussels.
”The opening of St Pancras in November means that business travellers in the UK now have a direct link to Europe”s high speed rail network, and for European travellers a quicker connection into central London,” said CWT”s director of public sector UK, Nigel Turner.
”Whilst it seems obvious that this alone will positively impact on rail versus air bookings between the UK and the rest of Europe, it appears that there is a growing preference for domestic rail travel ” driving this trend are issues of emissions, security and baggage versus airlines, improved rail services and reliability, and even price where business travellers have wised up to the savings that can be made with a bit of advance planning.”
Turner also said there are common misconceptions about how far in advance you need to buy train tickets to receive discounts, pointing out that informing your travel buyer at least the day before a journey can make large savings.
CWT”s research showed that a first class ticket between Euston and Manchester, if booked on the day of travel, can cost up to ”360 ($725), but booked just a day in advance it cost ”175.50 ” a saving of ”184.50.
”The common misunderstanding is that advance purchasing must mean buying tickets at least two weeks in advance,” he said. ”This is not the case, although availability of low fares will be better the sooner you book, many advance purchase fares are available up until 18:00 the day before travel.
”Current buying patterns do not lend themselves to travellers being able to quickly assimilate the wide range of fare and travel information available, and they often don't have time to weigh-up cost implications as long as the ”expenses” safety net is in place. By contacting their travel management company, even with only 24 hours notice in advance of travel in many cases, travellers and their employers could be making huge savings.”