London Banter - View Single Post - Crossrail fares announced

Roland Perry · March 19th 18, 02:29 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In message , at 15:12:21 on Mon, 19 Mar
2018, remarked:
On Mon, 19 Mar 2018 13:17:14 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 11:25:15 on Mon, 19 Mar
2018, remarked:

(a) it would involve buying-out Heathrow's private infrastructure and
somehow compensating them for the lost premium fare revenue on HEx

An easier way would be to make it part of the condition for a 3rd runway.
"You want a runway that will blight the lives of millions of londoners,
cause untold extra pollution both on the ground and in the air and will cost
taxpayers a fortune? Then hand over Hex"

Part of the problem with that, is the main reason for HEx is to abstract
traffic from black cabs, aiming at the market for whom it's "A cab or
the Airport Express", and whatever you do to try to persuade them to use
what feels to a visitor like the local metro, doesn't deliver.

Possibly, but I would guess that the majority of people who would prefer to
take a train to central london don't want to pay extortionate fares only to be
dumped at paddington.

The same is true of the destination of any "Airport Express" train (or
indeed coach). But the point is those travellers now feel comfortable
because they are safely "in the big city".

If anything a new 3rd runway will need HEx even more, to deliver the
pollution reduction targets.

Given an airliner can use anything up to a ton of fuel (747) just to taxi
around a large airport such as Heathrow ,

Divided by the number of passengers then leaving by road.

the contribution of ground traffic
to the overall pollution increase that the 3rd runway will cause is probably
negligable.

Apparently not, and hence the need for the airport to go to
extraordinary measures, like building HEx in the first place,
to meet the targets.
--
Roland Perry