UK companies are increasingly switching from air to rail for shorter domestic journeys.
Alistair Rowe, BCD Travel's general manager in the UK, said there were two reasons for the "big shift": environmental concerns and the recent chaos at London Heathrow Airport.
He said rail was now 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.
He said that on a recent peak time BA flight from Manchester to Heathrow, there were just 14 people on a plane with seats for 189.
Mr Rowe was speaking at the Travel and Expense Management Forum in London organised by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives and Management Solutions (UK) and attended by about 50 delegates.
He said that while rail fares in the UK could be complex, they did not always have to be expensive.
He said travellers could save up to 30% 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% on its rail budget by stopping travellers having open tickets for outward journeys. On the client's six major trunk routes, the savings had amounted to 30%.
Martin Turner, head of sale for East Midlands Trains, said every corporate should have a rail policy.
It should look at the idea of buying single tickets instead of returns but also be ready to change policy to get the best fare available.
"This can include first class tickets. When there are not many people travelling on a particular train, the first class price drops. Single fares are the best way but also look at first class," he said.
Also from the conference……
Cost of SBTs "horrendous" - Mitchell
The cost of having staff book trips on online booking tools is "horrendous", Ron Mitchell, UK procurement consultant for Zurich Financial Services, told the conference.
Mr Mitchell said travel management companies (TMCs) when they were losing commissions from airlines and seeking to reduce their overheads, had “sold” the idea of self booking tools (SBTs) to corporates.
"They were sold to the corporates as a way of applying visual guilt to the bookers and this would reduce their fares.
"What they were saying was 'Get all your guys to book their own travel and we can reduce our overheads by getting rid of travel counsellors'.
"So the main beneficiaries were the TMCs," Mr Mitchell said.
But he said it took a fully trained counsellor on £15,000 a year five minutes to book a simple point to point trip while the traveller who could be on £50,000 to £60,000 spent 15 to 20 minutes making the same booking.
"This is not the king's new suit of clothes. In fact he has got nothing on. You have to question what you are getting out if it and why you are doing it.
"I would suggest that the cost of these tools is horrendous," he said.
Mr Mitchell said that the average cost of fares at Zurich had "reduced consistently" since SBTs were introduced and was "still reducing."
But he added that he did not know what the costs were from the time spent making the bookings.
Matthew Frost, UK sales director for KDS, said it was incredibly difficult to compare the time it took to make a booking online with the time a traveller spent on the telephone to the agent.
"He is going to spend as much time on the phone listening to the options as he is in making the booking," he said.
Chris Reynolds, a consultant with 3 Sixty and a former travel manager at Siemens, said that seven years ago, Mr Mitchell's remarks would have been accurate.
"There was then a fear of the Internet and a fear of new tools which made the process slow.
"But now SBTs are seen as a necessary part of a management tool kit," he said.
UK hotel prices likely to fall
Hotel prices in the UK are likely to fall, experts told the conference.
Grant Appleton, sales director for HRS, said the chances were that hotel prices would go down.
He said that corporates were making changes to their travelling.
For example they are staying at hotels on Monday nights when rates are lower than other, mid-week nights.
"Much has changed in the last three months. We are re-negotiating rates every few months because the market is changing so quickly.
"If you are suing deals done last November or December, there is a need to re-negotiate them," he said.
Jerry Murck, BCD Travel's senior vp hotel reservations, said: "You will see some price pressure, some discounting but it will not be the free for all we saw a few years back."
Ian Gamblin, an account manager for BCD Travel, said he had seen a drop in travel by clients since January.
"But there have also been policy changes and a downgrading of hotels used. Corporates' parameters are changing,” he said.
Michelle Alvin, travel manager for Dresdner Kleinwort said many banks were currently suffering and travel was being cut by many of them.
"We are tightening our policy and if people go outside of it, they will not be re-imbursed," she said.
She said hotels were also reacting to the drop in business from banks. "We have deals for so much business but they tell us 'You are not even close to that' and they saying 'We are not sure we can keep this deal.'
But others said the drop in business was regional with a fall in UK domestic trips balanced but an increase in business to Asia, especially China.