Let the train take the airline strain | Letters
Many people using internal flights provided by Flybe and other airlines cite high fares and reliability issues as the principal reasons for opting to travel by plane rather than train. If the chancellor understands that levelling up is easy to say but harder to accomplish (The fate of Flybe confirms that levelling up must be more than a slogan, Journal, 6 March), we must hope he will ignore the temptation to offer tax incentives to keep planes flying when the owners have been reluctant to invest further in their business.
Instead, he should focus on “bread and butter” issues such as the railway line passing close to Flybe’s HQ, outside Exeter, which is single track for around half of the route to London Waterloo, inevitably impacting on journey time. The faster line to London Paddington is susceptible to unplanned closures during winter storms, as the track skirts the coast near Dawlish.
Putting on a hard hat and a hi-vis jacket and announcing grand projects is great for election campaigns, but no substitute for making hard choices and delivering them.
Les Bright
Exeter, Devon
You report (6 March) that Flybe was “the fourth UK airline to go bust in a little over two years”. Can someone please explain why it didn’t charge fares that were high enough to remain viable? Perhaps if people paid a realistic price to fly, there would be less flying and therefore lower carbon emissions – even more so if airlines were made to pay tax on the fuel they use.
Peter Afford
London
If the government can take over the running of Northern rail (as it has done from 1 March) and the east coast mainline service (on two occasions) because of the failure of or dissatisfaction with franchisees, is there any reason it can’t use the same vehicle to run Flybe, even if only its intra-UK routes?
Rhys David
Redbourn, Hertfordshire
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