UK companies are increasingly switching from air to rail for shorter domestic journeys.
Speaking at the Travel and Expense Management Forum in London, organised by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives and Management Solutions (UK), Alistair Rowe, BCD Travel's general manager in the UK, said there were two reasons for the "big shift": environmental concerns and the chaos earlier this year at London Heathrow airport. He said rail was competing with air on journeys to London from Glasgow and Edinburgh but on shorter trips to Leeds and Manchester, there was a major move away from air travel.
On a recent peak time British Airways flight from Manchester to Heathrow, there were just 14 passengers on an aircraft with seating for 189, said Rowe.
While rail fares in the UK could be complex, they did not always have to be expensive, he maintained. Travellers could save up to 30 per cent on a return journey if they bought a fixed ticket for the outward leg and an open ticket for the trip home.
Lynne Ellison, an account manager with BCD Travel, said one of her clients had saved 43 per cent on its rail budget, simply by stopping travellers having open tickets for outward journeys. On six major trunk routes, the client's savings had amounted to 30 per cent.
Martin Turner, head of sales for East Midlands Trains, told delegates that every corporate should have a rail policy.