An environment-friendly Oxfordshire travel company is to close after more than 30 years in business - because of competition from cheap flights and the Internet.o Chiltern Trains Holidays, based in Chinnor, was set up in 1976 by Tony Parkins, offering holidays by rail, mainly in Britain.

Next year Mr Parkins, who is in his 50s, will be making his six staff redundant and closing down.

He said: "It's very sad. Basically, the over-riding factor is that the job of the traditional tour operator is not needed. Everyone wants to cut out the middleman.

"The type of holiday we run is environmentally better and we support local economies by using local hotels and coach companies. But at the end of the day, you can have two weeks in Greece instead. Life is not a bed of roses."

Mr Parkins contacted the Oxford Mail after reading about an Oxford University report saying growing numbers of cheap air flights were incompatible with the Government's aim of slowing the rate of climate change.

He said some of his staff had been with the business for more than 15 years, and he had many local customers, some of whom had taken 12 or 15 holidays with the company.

He said: "Young people don't have the same degree of commitment. It's much easier for them to get on a plane and go somewhere nice and warm."

"We don't have any kind of 'call waiting' system. We offer old-fashioned customer service - a real person on the end of a telephone - but it comes at a price."

Despite a lot of "greenwash", he said Government policies supported air travel, not rail, and he had no compensation when the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001 forced him to cancel several tours.

The final tour Mr Parkins will run next year will be to Scotland, using the spectacular West Highland railway line.

He has recently been forced to replace a ship journey from Shetland to the Faroe Isles with a flight because of changes to the ferry service.

"The ferries are seasonal and I didn't think people would appreciate a 2am start from Lerwick," he said.