I know the BBC is notoriously London-centric - but does Manchester to London really count as long-haul ?
Yawn! Would that be the same London-centric BBC that is making more than half its programmes outside the M25, and that has just moved much of its operations up to Media City, which just happens to be in, err - Manchester?
London-centric is such a boring term. The UK as a whole is
mono-centric, and London just happens to account for the mono-bit. If we were having this debate in
duo-centric Spain or Italy, then we could complain about a Madrid-centric or Rome-centric bias. Any claim of such bias is irrelevant in the UK.
Virgin says that 65% of people who fly from Manchester to London then connect on to another long-haul flight
As in another flight which happens to be long haul, could have been more clearly expressed. Why do we need Virgin to tell us this? Beardie is cross because he has lost another train battle and thinks he's doing us all a favour by bringing us competition on a feeder leg for long haul flights? Oh please!
Nearly every major trading nation has a decent capital airport and some decent TGV lines that run from it, except for the UK.
Sure! I've just booked my TGV from IAD into Philly - oh hang on a minute, can't do that. What happened to the Narita Shinkansen? Or a fast link from Beijing Airport to other cities? I suppose the Shanghai Maglev goes all the way from the airport to, well, the edge of Shanghai!
In fact, well planned major air hub to high speed rail (HSR) links are rare (the TGV nomenclature is only relevant to the French TGV and variants, it is not an accepted term for such systems in general).
The only airports which could truly claim to interchange NETWORKS of air AND HSR are CDG and FRA.
Can London join them? As it stands, not looking likely - HS2 would only have a branch into LHR, and the cost of this at £4.2bn for an hourly service into T5 only looks astranomical. Meanwhile, the HS2 terminus will be welded into a stub at Euston long before the dredgers are out to create Boris Island.
3. The enormous indriect subsidy from the taxpayer which the likes of BAA and the airlines are recieving, so no, it will not be wholly private money being used to build a new runway at Heathrow.
Just where exactly are these "indirect" subsidies? No PSO at Heathrow. Other "subsidy" claims belong in Jet Blast or your local green forum, they do not stand up to detailed scrutiny.
Correct me if this is wrong, but aren’t large infrastructure plans now dealt with by the “nationally significant infrastructure projects” procedure?
AFAIK this speeds up the planning procedure to avoid planning inquiry like that of Heathrow-5 and others dragging on forever.
AFAIK rail infrastructure improvements are also dealt with this way.
Revoked planning permission would need a major inquiry to unrevoke. HACAN & co would almost certainly mount a legal challenge over a 3rd runway.
HS2 has already had one judicial review over the consultation. If they start adding bits (e.g. a Ph1 link to Derby), they will no doubt be challenged too, even though, imho, these extras would go some way to making the project justifiable.
HS2 will go through a "hybrid bill", a process used when a commercial project needs the support of parliament.
He (Boris) will bide his time, and strike when Fortuna determines the time is right.
Bookies have been backing Boris for several years now, and he is well ahead of Osborne as favourite (3/1 v 8/1). The question is one of mechanism - but as bookies know that an early end to the coalition is lose-lose for both parties, they must presume that Boris will make a bid after an election in 2015 - although how he would become an MP by then is really one for JetBlast.
But if you use that Q.E. money to create the world's busiest and most profitable airport (in the Thames Estuary), then it is not a waste at all, it becomes an asset that will fund future generations for a century or more.
Except that if it was going to be the world's most profitable airport, investors would be queuing up to develop it, and this whole thread would be a side show. Remember that all the rumblings are now pointing to a 3rd runway at LHR, so by the time BI gets built, it will be offering 4 runways against 3.
Naturally, LHR x 3 will be even harder to close than LHR x 2, and the commercial case now rests on 75% of investment being made to replace capacity instead of 67%.
Yet, surprise surprise - Silver still fails to answer calls to explain what the PSC would be to use this gargantuan white elephant-on-sea.