Quote: “
Dual mode means a lot of redundant weight. Better to be all electric or just diesel haulled. If it was just the last few miles, you could attach diesel loco, but that is untrendy these days.”
Agreed, but surely it’s better than spending millions on electrification then running diesels under the wires.
Apparently, dual mode is belatedly being considered.
Quote: “
Not quite. It suggests that the mandarins want to invest in LHR, and that Boris will probably be ignored, but this is not certain just yet.”
It isn’t just the mandarins, it’s the majority of politicians (except, predictably, the Libdems), business, trade and industry, bisiness travellers, leisure travellers, aviation employees (especially those who work on the airport) and, yes, most local residents.
Those against tend to be a vocal minority who live miles from the airport.
Quote: “
Then again, Greening thinks Birmingham is in "the north", so maybe there is a job for Silver in the government?”
That’s surprising,
AFAIK, Greening is from the north (just), think it’s Sheffield(?).
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There are suggestions on another thread that there is already a growing amount of transfer traffic between trans-atlantic and middle-east flights at Manchester. Given the necessary delays in introducing more capacity in the London area, is a viable secondary hub likely to evolve before either Heathrow runway 3 or Birdstrike Central become operational?”
It would be fantastic if Ringway became the secondary UK hub, but that would not, in any way, affect Heathrow‘s need for two more runways. The sucessful development of the secondary hub at Munich had no bearing on the need for four runways at Frankfurt. It's not about alternatives!
Quote: “BA has 9 LHR/MAN rotations per day, 11 on LHR/EDI, for example, all with A319/A320/A321.
Don't you think they would have tried doubling the aircraft size and halving the frequency if they thought that would work ? “
No, the point is that most shorthaul routes, and a handful of longhaul (e.g. New York) ones need
frequency. This is particularly important on the business-orientated ones.