The Liberal Democrats will today [Friday] launch new transport polices to create a zero carbon transport system by 2050.

The plans include a commitment to double investment in the railways by introducing a toll on road freight and a charge for internal air flights.

The paper Towards Carbon Free Transport forms part of wider climate change proposals which will be debated at the party's autumn conference. The proposals potentially release £12 billion for spending on rail improvements in the next five years.

Proposals include:

• Introducing a distance charge on road freight, related to weight and emissions, as an incentive to shift freight to rail, raising at least £600m a year
• Establishing a new 'Future Transport Fund' to fund a programme of investment on our railways; removing bottlenecks, providing more trains and reopening lines
• Backing new North-South and East-West high-speed rail lines to the best European standards to replace internal flights
• Toughening new legal limits on the average emissions of new cars sold in the EU, to be reinforced with a steadily declining total that reaches zero by 2040
• Introducing a new 'Climate Change Charge' on internal flights, except life-line routes, starting at £10 per ticket to help fund the 'Future Transport Fund,' which will generate at least £150m a year

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne MP said:

"Plans to improve the railways must not be scuppered yet again by public spending constraints.

"The Future Transport Fund will provide ring-fenced funding for the improvements that future generations need if we are to cut our carbon emissions.

"These plans will shift freight from road to rail, cut carbon, and improve mobility as the rail network begins to run out of capacity."

Commenting further, Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Secretary, Susan Kramer MP said:

"If freight can be taken off the roads and people can be convinced to swap plane journeys for high-speed rail, then we can really start to make a difference to our environment.

"Rail is the key to cleaning up Britain's transport, not an added extra as ministers seem to think.

"These plans look to 2015 and beyond when the rail network will be reaching full capacity.

"Without substantial new investment, we will not have the 21^st century rail network that our children and grandchildren need.

"We must modernise our transport infrastructure, or serious economic consequences will follow in the future."