On Apr 12, 12:53*am, Bruce wrote:
" wrote:
....
Airtrack, like the PRT, was probably no more than a ruse to get
planning permission for some major development work at Heathrow. *
....
Terminal 5's Business Car Park users
....
Airtrack was probably intended to help BAA gain planning permission
for the third runway and associated works. *Now the coalition
government has made it crystal clear that the third runway project is
dead and buried, there's no point in Airtrack.

Correct.

'Airtrack' - well the concept of it - has been in the planning since
the early 1980s - I used to work for BA Airport Policy Planning. In
1983/4 I was fixing a computer in the APP manager Paul Ellis' office
in Comet House, and I noticed that on the back of his office door was
a map of 'Airtrack' - although it wasn't called that at the time. I
asked why didn't they rebuild the line into Heathrow (as part of the
GWR branch from West Drayton to Staines). Paul answered that they (BA
and BAA prior to Ferovial's takeover) wouldn't get everything approved
if they asked for T4, then the widening of the M25, then T5, then
'Airtrack,' and then a Third Runway - all at once. He then stated that
BA's and BAA's policy was piecemeal encroachment of the Green Belt. So
that's what they did - T4 came first. then the M25 widening, then T5.
But the public enquiry for latter was so drawn out, BAA (and BA) were
caught lying about future expansion, and the locals were starting to
wise up and get organised to protest, that the momentum started to
wane.

And with the Climate Camp, increasing awareness of the damage that
aircraft do to the environment, the general world recession, the
cessation of expansion at Heathrow by the Coalition Govt., and
Ferovial's own financial woes, all now means that Airtrack is not
viable. The opposition of the local councils has also added pressure
to drop the project with regards to traffic congestion at innumerable
level crossings.

CJB.

P.S. It is sad that Paul Ellis and his team at BA have wasted their
entire working lives and careers trying to get the Third Runway and
Airtrack off the ground (so to speak) only to have both project
cancelled. What a total waste of time and human talent.