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Home » Previous activities » European Parliament Q&A flying, trains and climate » Partiet Vändpunkt (UK)

Partiet Vändpunkt (UK)

1. The Party Turning Point believes that we are in an emergency situation for climate and therefore air travel must decrease sharply in the coming years. For long-distance travel in Sweden and Europe, comfortable night trains are a way to travel environmentally friendly and comfortably.

2. It is quite unreasonable that it is often cheaper to take an air plane than a train – it clearly shows that aviation does not carry its environmental costs and in practice is heavily subsidized. Aviation must be taxed and train services receive substantial subsidies to create a more attractive alternative.

3. The Party Turning Point is very critical of the deregulation that split up the operation and maintenance to many operators, and this combined with national train rules and national train priorities make poor structures that reinforce each other. We want willing countries within and outside the EU to join forces in joint procurement of international night trains and, if possible, to purchase a modern night train fleet.

4. We are very positive about these ideas. As we wrote in the previous question, the fastest way is for groups of countries to go ahead with procurement of such trains. We cannot wait for the EU bureaucracy and a fifth railway package, it can take at least ten years.
Sweden by itself or together with neighboring countries must procure night trains with new wagons from Stockholm to Copenhagen / Hamburg and Berlin as well as to Narvik and to Rovaniemi. Such trains can be fully realised already during the next term of office.

5. The Turning Point Party is negative to the priority of the fastest high-speed trains that are expensive and only stop at a few stations. New rail and links are needed that connect traffic between countries, and a combination of regional trains, middle-distance trains and faster long-distance trains. High-speed trains run the risk of forcing out other trains from the track space and slots at the stations and from the investment capacity. We want to see new investments in missing links and new rail for speeds up to 250 km per hour.

6. Travelers who go long-distance trains with seat tickets must of course be able to take the next train at no extra cost in case of delays. The train companies must be forced to accept this, or an insurance fund must be built up for this. Such insurance should also apply to exceptional circumstances such as major natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

7. Aviation should taxed in the EU and in proportion to both carbon dioxide emissions and the climate impact of airstrips at high altitude. We immediately request moratorium on all new airports and runways in the EU. It is totally unacceptable that the EU would avoid stricter rules with reference to CORSIA which allows for continued increase in air traffic for many years. CORSIA is greenwash from the aviation industry.

7.1 The EU must push for a change to the Chicago Convention and global rules on the taxation of aviation fuel. Pending its implementation, the EU should negotiate with other major players such as the United States, Canada, China. Already next year, individual countries and groups of countries should go ahead with a kerosene tax.

7.2 Flights shorter than one hour should absolutely be prohibited as comfortable trains with the possibility to work can completely replace these trips. The EU and public employees must go ahead and use the train even on longer distances where good night trains or quick day trains are offered. A flight can only be accepted if the savings in time are more than three hours counted on the hours of the day you do not sleep.