Car trips 'costing billions'

A STUDY carried out in the Capital has discovered that British companies are losing billions of pounds a year by taking business trips by car instead of travelling by train.

The research, carried out by Napier University's Transport Research Institute, found that on typical intercity journeys, car travel is 37 per cent more expensive than taking the train.

In some cases, employers could be missing out on up to £144 on a single journey if employees take the car, the study claimed.

The research compared the costs involved in travelling by train and car - including the time lost that employees could spend working on a train. Professor Howard Kirby, who led the research at Napier University, said: "This study shows that productivity on a train can save employers significant amounts.

"This is an important policy area for government too - something they should be considering when evaluating rail schemes, such data having not been available before."

A spokesman for Virgin Trains, which commissioned the research, said trains would become even more cost effective when continuous mobile communications such as Wi-Fi are rolled out.