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Old September 29th 08, 12:55 PM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london
Robert[_2_] Robert[_2_] is offline
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Default Tories 20BN railway to replace Heathrow expansion (St Pancras is Heathrow T6, again)

On 2008-09-29 09:07:41 +0100, Tom Barry said:

Mizter T wrote:


Incidentally - before anyone mentions it - I really don't think this
proposal should be read together with Boris's comments about a new
artificial island airport in the Thames estuary - Bozza's comments do
not constitute Tory policy, instead they were more of a pie in the sky
fantasy plan (after all, it's easy to dream up such schemes - it
happens all the time here! - but rather more of a challenge to
actually make them happen).


Agreed - the airport plans really come from Deputy Mayor for Policing
Kit Malthouse, who's been involved with aviation before (his budget
airline failed to get off the ground in 2004) and wrote this article:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle2925884.ece


which,

to me at least, reads like someone who doesn't know what he's talking
about (the cruising speed on the GWML for instance).



I think you have misunderstood Malthouse’s remarks about trains’
speeds. He compared Brunel’s approach to civil engineering, which
allowed for speeds in the future to be much higher than those current
in 1833, to that of others active at the time. Malthouse then stated
that “And he was right: trains can run at well over 150 mph today.” In
my reading this sentence does not refer directly to speeds on the GWML.

Malthouse could have strengthened his argument by adding the airport at
Munich to his list of relocated airports. About 10 years ago the new
airport in the Erdinger Moos ('Franz Josef Strauss') was opened to
replace the cramped site very close to the city at Riem. I have used it
frequently over the last three years; it is spacious, is well laid out
and has a micro-brewery on the premises, the Air-Bräu which sells beer
at very democratic prices. What more do you need? The only snag is the
all-stations S-Bahn link to Munich via routes S1 and S8, both of which
take 45 minutes to the Hauptbahnhof.

Nevertheless the main thrust of his arguments is reasonable. However,
without the airport nearby the value of the land released by Heathrow
will most likely not be as high as land prices in the area have been.
(By the time the airport is moved we will be in the
financial/economic/political crisis after the one after this one ).
However relocating Heathrow to a site east of London will have huge
knock-on effects to those companies who have set up shop in the Thames
Valley and other areas west of London because of easy access to
Heathrow. Bracknell, Slough, Reading, Basingstoke and others will no
longer be so attractive to globally active high-tech industries unless
easy and simple access to London’s future airport is maintained.


All the talking points are identical to the ones Boris came out with
last week.

Boris is easily swayed by the enthusiasms of others - don't take it
seriously, they're better at getting stuff in the papers than concrete
into the ground. At least the main party appears to be talking to
someone sensible.

Tom