In message i, at
00:53:45 on Sun, 14 Mar 2010, Tom Anderson
remarked:

The sixth thing that's obvious is that connections from Heathrow to
Europe have to be frequent (two an hour?), because people won't move
from plane to train if they have to wait two hours for it.

Where is this apparently single point called "Europe"?

There is no single point called Europe, it's a sort of continent
thingy, just to the east of Britain. I'm not sure where you got the
idea it was point; certainly not from anything in my post.

It's the part where you say "2tph Heathrow to Europe". Unless people
reckon that's been delivered when they pass Calais, 2tph to "somewhere
in Europe" is likely to be one train every two hours to Paris plus one
or two trains a day to a couple of dozen other places.

The other day I posted a list of ten separate destinations served in
a couple of hours from the much smaller airport, East Midlands.

You might delight everyone with 2tph to Paris, but what of the dozens
of other places they might want to be going instead?

Doubtless fictional.

What's fictional about a list of places (on the mainland, not holiday
islands) flown to from an airport?

I am even dubious about this alleged 'Paris'.

As far as I can see most people seem to assume that a shuttle to Paris,
plus a change of train, is equivalent to "a through service to Europe"


I was deliberately vague about Europe because the trains could be going
to all sorts of places - a small number now, but hopefully more in the
future. Perhaps never as many as that airport, in which case

Of course, the airport I mentioned was a small regional one. Lots more
places to try to serve if you are attempting to replace flights from
Heathrow.

perhaps HS2 should serve that too.

Apparently it will - East Midlands Interchange will be a a couple of
miles away.
--
Roland Perry