Chartering a private jet to travel from London to Leeds suggests that our airborne PM is not grounded on transport priorities
Rishi Sunak boards an RAF plane as he heads to visit a healthcare centre in Leeds
How the other 0.001% live.
On Tuesday this week, we learned that the prime minister had travelled to a medical centre in Leeds to meet patients and staff. He decided that “the best use of his time” justified taking a luxury private jet the 200 miles to get there, notching up a five-figure bill for the taxpayer in the process.
The train to Leeds from London takes about two hours and 15 minutes and even an open first class return would only have cost the taxpayer around £300.
A&E? Appalling and extravagant. Or H – hypocritical, as it was not very long ago at COP 27 in Sharm-el- Sheikh that the PM was urging other world leaders to stick to their climate commitments.
Private jets emit up to 14 times more harmful emissions than a commercial flight, and 50 times more than the equivalent train journey. The PM will have emitted around two tonnes of carbon on his flight to Leeds. The average person emits 8.2 tonnes over the entire year.
Perhaps it was not the “best use of time” that motivated the prime minister. Perhaps he was fearful of running into ordinary workers on the railway, especially as rumours suggest it was No 10 that pulled the rug from under a deal to end the strikes just before Christmas.
He may also have been dimly aware that his government’s tabling of a Bill to force workers on the railway to strike-break and run a minimum service would not have gone down well, and in fact is guaranteed to worsen industrial relations.
The government maintains the proposed legislation is water-tight, and allows employers to sue unions who do not comply, or to sack workers who do not turn up for work.
We already have an acute shortage of train drivers. Is the government really sanguine that some of those we do have can be casually sacked?
We already have an acute shortage of train drivers. Is the government really sanguine that some of those we do have can be casually sacked?
I don’t think this legislation – assuming it makes it onto the statute book – can work. What is to stop a railworker getting a doctor’s note (assuming they can find a health professional, subject to the same legislation, who has not also been sacked) and phoning in sick? What is to stop railworkers imposing a complete overtime ban? The railway is heavily dependent on overtime and will simply cease to function in any meaningful way if none is worked. What is to stop railworkers simply turning up, but then working to rule, or working at a snail’s pace?
You cannot force people at gunpoint to turn up for work, and then to work enthusiastically. Transport secretary Mark Harper and rail minister Huw Merriman have understood the need for better relations between the government and the rail unions and have tried to sound emollient. Unfortunately, their voices are being drowned out by others elsewhere in government, including that of the airborne PM.
Mind you, his use of airborne travel might just be a lazy habit. It was not long ago he took a return helicopter flight from Battersea to attend a Conservative Party fundraising dinner in Wales, though at least on that occasion he paid for it himself. Well, what’s £10,000 here or there if you’re a multi billionaire?
Campaign for Better Transport recently launched a new policy to introduce a supertax on private jet use, multiplying by 10 the Air Passenger Duty payable by those on such flights, with the money raised going to support public transport.
Campaign for Better Transport recently launched a new policy to introduce a supertax on private jet use, multiplying by 10 the Air Passenger Duty payable by those on such flights, with the money raised going to support public transport.
Britain tops the European league for private jet use, accounting for 19% of all such flights within the continent. Such a tax would raise a tidy sum, around £1.4bn a year in fact, equivalent to almost the entire Network Rail maintenance costs from last year. If the exemption from VAT is also ended, that could raise a further £623m a year.
Meanwhile, while the PM was adding to carbon emissions and air pollution – a major cause of health problems of course – on his way to his hospital photo-op, I put my faith in an Avanti West Coast service to get me from London to Coventry.
The good news was that it ran and was pretty much on time. The bad news was that the 10-coach electric train had been replaced by a 5-coach diesel Voyager, meaning chaos as all seat reservations were null and void on what was a rammed train, and that we ran on diesel under the wires for the entire journey.
I was in Coventry, because I wanted to learn about the development of a potentially ground-breaking Very Light Rail concept.
The travelling public likes light rail, and it was interesting to learn that light rail patronage in the West Midlands had bounced back more quickly and fully post-pandemic than it has on bus or heavy rail.
But the growth of light rail across the country has been hampered by the costs of laying track, costs which reached an astronomical £71m per kilometre in Edinburgh. Apart from the bureaucratic obstacles, such as the unwieldy requirements of the Transport and Works Act which seems to treat equally a new high-speed line and a new tram line, the need to move utilities has been a major burden.
In the case of Edinburgh, which I looked into when I was the minister covering light rail, it seemed clear that the utility companies saw the tram plans as manna from heaven, and were taking the opportunity to renew a whole load of creaky pipes and the like, and to bill the tram developers for the upgrade.
The beauty of the Coventry scheme is that the track form proposed will use slabs that do not require deep excavation and so will sit above existing utilities. The unique concept has been created and developed by the local director of transport, Colin Knight, with strong and consistent support from the lead Cabinet member Jim O’Boyle.
The estimated cost per kilometre of track is just £10m with this scheme which, if that can be achieved, opens up the prospect of Coventry exporting its concept to other cities in the UK and indeed further afield as well. There is already interest from places such as Stoke and Wakefield. A dedicated vehicle has been designed and the next stage is to lay a section of demonstrator track close to Coventry station. Overall the scheme combines original innovation with the maximum use of existing technology to keep costs down. I reckon it’s a runner.
Elsewhere in the West Midlands, it is encouraging to see the pro-bus and forward-thinking policies that seemed to be shared across both Labour and Conservative parties locally
Elsewhere in the West Midlands, it is encouraging to see the pro-bus and forward-thinking policies that seemed to be shared across both Labour and Conservative parties locally.
Birmingham, home to Spaghetti Junction and the country’s prime example of how building more and more roads only generates more and more traffic jams, has at last turned the corner.
Car park spaces have been reduced by at least 2,500 since 2012, with consideration being given to more conversion to uses such as housing developments. Footway parking is being removed and through traffic being redirected away from the centre. Meanwhile, a Nottingham-style workplace charging scheme is under consideration.
In terms of public transport, we have seen an extension to the light rail scheme introduced, something I helped kick off as a minister. Cross-city buses are being introduced, and the metro mayor, Andy Street, is opening a clutch of new railway stations. It is particularly welcome to see the return of a Wolverhampton-Walsall operation, which has been kept barely alive as a “parliamentary service” since 2009.
A whole swathe of new hydrogen and battery buses are being introduced by the dominant operator National Express, and evidence from elsewhere in the country, notably that recently published in a report by Stagecoach, suggests that the arrival of new state-of-the-art buses can drive modal shift from car to bus.
Of course, much remains to be done in the West Midlands, not least of all the co-ordination of fares and ticketing across all public transport modes, and indeed cycle hire too. Furthermore, the absence of gates at the majority of railway stations, coupled with the short stopping pattern of many trains and the consequent challenge of checking tickets on board, suggests a high level of fare evasion which really needs to be tackled.
Nevertheless, there are clear signs of progress as the need to move away from polluting forms of transport takes root across the political spectrum. Perhaps the local politicians could invite the PM up to explain what is being done and why. And why even a rammed 5-coach diesel train to get him to Birmingham is a much better option than a private jet.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Norman Baker served as transport minister from May 2010 until October 2013. He was Lib Dem MP for Lewes between 1997 and 2015.
This story appears inside the latest issue of Passenger Transport.
Visit the West Midlands Rishi, but don’t fly
by Passenger Transport on Jan 12, 2023 • 4:52 pm No CommentsChartering a private jet to travel from London to Leeds suggests that our airborne PM is not grounded on transport priorities
How the other 0.001% live.
On Tuesday this week, we learned that the prime minister had travelled to a medical centre in Leeds to meet patients and staff. He decided that “the best use of his time” justified taking a luxury private jet the 200 miles to get there, notching up a five-figure bill for the taxpayer in the process.
The train to Leeds from London takes about two hours and 15 minutes and even an open first class return would only have cost the taxpayer around £300.
A&E? Appalling and extravagant. Or H – hypocritical, as it was not very long ago at COP 27 in Sharm-el- Sheikh that the PM was urging other world leaders to stick to their climate commitments.
Private jets emit up to 14 times more harmful emissions than a commercial flight, and 50 times more than the equivalent train journey. The PM will have emitted around two tonnes of carbon on his flight to Leeds. The average person emits 8.2 tonnes over the entire year.
Perhaps it was not the “best use of time” that motivated the prime minister. Perhaps he was fearful of running into ordinary workers on the railway, especially as rumours suggest it was No 10 that pulled the rug from under a deal to end the strikes just before Christmas.
He may also have been dimly aware that his government’s tabling of a Bill to force workers on the railway to strike-break and run a minimum service would not have gone down well, and in fact is guaranteed to worsen industrial relations.
The government maintains the proposed legislation is water-tight, and allows employers to sue unions who do not comply, or to sack workers who do not turn up for work.
We already have an acute shortage of train drivers. Is the government really sanguine that some of those we do have can be casually sacked?
I don’t think this legislation – assuming it makes it onto the statute book – can work. What is to stop a railworker getting a doctor’s note (assuming they can find a health professional, subject to the same legislation, who has not also been sacked) and phoning in sick? What is to stop railworkers imposing a complete overtime ban? The railway is heavily dependent on overtime and will simply cease to function in any meaningful way if none is worked. What is to stop railworkers simply turning up, but then working to rule, or working at a snail’s pace?
You cannot force people at gunpoint to turn up for work, and then to work enthusiastically. Transport secretary Mark Harper and rail minister Huw Merriman have understood the need for better relations between the government and the rail unions and have tried to sound emollient. Unfortunately, their voices are being drowned out by others elsewhere in government, including that of the airborne PM.
Mind you, his use of airborne travel might just be a lazy habit. It was not long ago he took a return helicopter flight from Battersea to attend a Conservative Party fundraising dinner in Wales, though at least on that occasion he paid for it himself. Well, what’s £10,000 here or there if you’re a multi billionaire?
Campaign for Better Transport recently launched a new policy to introduce a supertax on private jet use, multiplying by 10 the Air Passenger Duty payable by those on such flights, with the money raised going to support public transport.
Britain tops the European league for private jet use, accounting for 19% of all such flights within the continent. Such a tax would raise a tidy sum, around £1.4bn a year in fact, equivalent to almost the entire Network Rail maintenance costs from last year. If the exemption from VAT is also ended, that could raise a further £623m a year.
Meanwhile, while the PM was adding to carbon emissions and air pollution – a major cause of health problems of course – on his way to his hospital photo-op, I put my faith in an Avanti West Coast service to get me from London to Coventry.
The good news was that it ran and was pretty much on time. The bad news was that the 10-coach electric train had been replaced by a 5-coach diesel Voyager, meaning chaos as all seat reservations were null and void on what was a rammed train, and that we ran on diesel under the wires for the entire journey.
I was in Coventry, because I wanted to learn about the development of a potentially ground-breaking Very Light Rail concept.
The travelling public likes light rail, and it was interesting to learn that light rail patronage in the West Midlands had bounced back more quickly and fully post-pandemic than it has on bus or heavy rail.
But the growth of light rail across the country has been hampered by the costs of laying track, costs which reached an astronomical £71m per kilometre in Edinburgh. Apart from the bureaucratic obstacles, such as the unwieldy requirements of the Transport and Works Act which seems to treat equally a new high-speed line and a new tram line, the need to move utilities has been a major burden.
In the case of Edinburgh, which I looked into when I was the minister covering light rail, it seemed clear that the utility companies saw the tram plans as manna from heaven, and were taking the opportunity to renew a whole load of creaky pipes and the like, and to bill the tram developers for the upgrade.
The beauty of the Coventry scheme is that the track form proposed will use slabs that do not require deep excavation and so will sit above existing utilities. The unique concept has been created and developed by the local director of transport, Colin Knight, with strong and consistent support from the lead Cabinet member Jim O’Boyle.
The estimated cost per kilometre of track is just £10m with this scheme which, if that can be achieved, opens up the prospect of Coventry exporting its concept to other cities in the UK and indeed further afield as well. There is already interest from places such as Stoke and Wakefield. A dedicated vehicle has been designed and the next stage is to lay a section of demonstrator track close to Coventry station. Overall the scheme combines original innovation with the maximum use of existing technology to keep costs down. I reckon it’s a runner.
Elsewhere in the West Midlands, it is encouraging to see the pro-bus and forward-thinking policies that seemed to be shared across both Labour and Conservative parties locally.
Birmingham, home to Spaghetti Junction and the country’s prime example of how building more and more roads only generates more and more traffic jams, has at last turned the corner.
Car park spaces have been reduced by at least 2,500 since 2012, with consideration being given to more conversion to uses such as housing developments. Footway parking is being removed and through traffic being redirected away from the centre. Meanwhile, a Nottingham-style workplace charging scheme is under consideration.
In terms of public transport, we have seen an extension to the light rail scheme introduced, something I helped kick off as a minister. Cross-city buses are being introduced, and the metro mayor, Andy Street, is opening a clutch of new railway stations. It is particularly welcome to see the return of a Wolverhampton-Walsall operation, which has been kept barely alive as a “parliamentary service” since 2009.
A whole swathe of new hydrogen and battery buses are being introduced by the dominant operator National Express, and evidence from elsewhere in the country, notably that recently published in a report by Stagecoach, suggests that the arrival of new state-of-the-art buses can drive modal shift from car to bus.
Of course, much remains to be done in the West Midlands, not least of all the co-ordination of fares and ticketing across all public transport modes, and indeed cycle hire too. Furthermore, the absence of gates at the majority of railway stations, coupled with the short stopping pattern of many trains and the consequent challenge of checking tickets on board, suggests a high level of fare evasion which really needs to be tackled.
Nevertheless, there are clear signs of progress as the need to move away from polluting forms of transport takes root across the political spectrum. Perhaps the local politicians could invite the PM up to explain what is being done and why. And why even a rammed 5-coach diesel train to get him to Birmingham is a much better option than a private jet.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Norman Baker served as transport minister from May 2010 until October 2013. He was Lib Dem MP for Lewes between 1997 and 2015.
This story appears inside the latest issue of Passenger Transport.
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