jabird:
So what are they doing wrong?
Three words: Speed, frequency and comfort.
I think you need to look again in the train table jabird, it takes a miniumum of 14 minutes to cover the 8 miles in to Picadilly. That gives an average speed of just above 34 mph. If we look at OSL, the Airport Express Train takes 19 minutes to cover the 23 miles strait line distance and the average speed is almost 73 mph (the rail line is actually closer to 33 miles long, so the real speed is over 100 mph). If you drive by car the same distance it will take twice as long. Then you have to find a parking space, get the parking ticket and at the end catch the shuttle bus from the parking space to the terminal. We're talking minimum one hour compared with 19 minutes by train. To reach any part of Oslo or the suburbs you only need to change the means of transportation once (to get in walking distance to your destination), and frequency is usually more than four times an hour. Comfort wise there isn't a need to complain either. I haven't traveled on the GMPTE, but I have had the pleasure to travel with the Stansted Airport Express (train) on first class. The comfort was poor - noisy, filthy and shaking like h.
jabird:
Who is coming from South East to use MAN anyway?
It must be some since UK CAA mention them in their MAN tables. The table below shows where the 2009 terminal passengers either are heading to or coming from:
I have extracted the Greater Manchester. Greater Manchester has only 22% of the charter passenger and as much as 36.7% of the scheduled passengers.
The rest is politics - you have to set a goal to make a change. Trains, metros and trams runs on hydro electric power in Norway and don't emit any CO2 - cars do in buckets.