Green Party Member of the European Parliament for the East of England, Catherine Rowett has said the introduction of a new flight service from Norwich Airport to Cornwall Airport Newquay epitomises how the region urgently needs better rail services.
The new service is set to launch on 3rd April, 2020 and the flight is expected to take 80 minutes. It currently takes more than eight hours to travel by train from Norwich to Newquay.
At the start of the Green Party autumn conference, the party’s leadership reaffirmed their long-standing opposition to HS2 – the proposed £88billion high speed rail service which is expected to cut journey times by 15mins between Birmingham and London – and instead called on the government to invest more in regional and cross-country rail travel.
Catherine Rowett MEP reiterated this saying:
“It is appalling that our region’s rail and public transport infrastructure has been neglected for so long. Given the climate crisis we are facing, which is so badly exacerbated by air travel, it is alarming that it is still easier for people take domestic flights than sustainable forms of transport. The new route between Norwich and Cornwall epitomises the need for a local transport revolution.”
She continued:
“We especially need local rail improvements, because the public transport provisions in this region are simply not fit for purpose. If we are to take the necessary action to tackle the climate emergency in which we face ourselves, we need to provide credible alternatives to aviation.
“The government clearly has the money to spend on improving rail services, but they are going about it all wrong. We need regional investment, investment in speedy and well-provisioned cross-country routes, and an end to the London-centric focus of our transport policy.”