Shed, the M56 is not a major motorway, it's connected to the M6 and M60 so in essence is connected to 1 major motorway and 1 overgrown ring road. As for the rail hub, how many services to these places you mention run with no changes? I have no dis-like for MAN, just have a dis-like of getting to it, having worked in Stretford for a year I'm pretty well versed in the commute.
As to the rail question ALL are single train services , now admittedly platform 13/14 at Piccadilly are over crowded and thats a long standing issue but not of the airports making and is addressed as part of the Northern Hub railway programme.
And tell me its less of a mare on the M42 - Yeah right !
As for the general issue like many particularly Fred of Middlesex they are missing the point re LHR . Almost all the Manchester contributors acknowledge the need for the third runway however what we also want is a levelled playing field -those pesky bi-laterals dealt with such that Manchester (and others) can actually meet their local demands and growth potential
As for BA and historical regional operations i think there is more than enough written from both sides of the argument if you care to read and research -Again remember the effects also decimated that other airport in Birmingham.
Right now Manchester handles more than 20 million pa to more than 140 scheduled destinations in Europe/North America/Caribbean/North Africa/MiddleEast/Pakistan and Singapore with freight services to Hong Kong -this is a serious airport .
Added to which known annual boardings to Hong Kong are in excess of 140,000 and mainland China a further 127,000 and rising.
In the case of the China there are cities with similar and indeed fewer boardings (Boston USA) winning new flights where the bi-latterals allow.
On the case of Hong Kong well questions remain of why CX continue to add LHR capacity at the expense of Manchester.