Shed,
You really need to take that chip off your shoulder.
I'm under the impression that taxpayers will foot the bill for the support works in the vicinity of LHR required to make the R3 project work. TfL puts that sum at £10Bn - £20Bn.
From the consultation
For both Heathrow schemes, there is no Government road spend directly linked
to expansion. The promoter would pay for changes to the M25, A4 and A3044
and any local roads. The Western and Southern Rail schemes are at different
levels of development and, based on current estimates, could cost between
£1.4 billion and £2.5 billion together. The Government would expect this cost to
be partly offset by airport contributions, which would be negotiated when the
schemes reach an appropriate level of development.
You also seem to think this will be paid in full upfront before construction begins. It would be over a series of staged payments spread over many years. In the meantime the privately funded works would be attracting 20%VAT, income taxes for workers, Corporation tax on business involved, etc. etc.
based on the sound business case of LHR expansion.
Now that is a fine piece of work which I must have missed!
Obviously you have. Luckily the teams of well qualified people working for the investors haven't though so the money is there.
Besides, how can we be so sure that customers will choose a stressful terminal transfer at LHR over a straightforward single-terminal transfer at AMS? AMS has every chance of continuing to be considered the preferred proposition for transit passengers.
Amazing, you already know what the transfer will be like? You are obvioulsy an airport design expert as well as business investment guru. Why hire all the consultants when they could just come up to the North West and ask you?
At the cost proposed it is not possible to get it right. A financial calamity is guaranteed at R3 prices.
Ahh, that's why.
The life has been sucked out of the regions. This imbalance must be redressed. There are stalled projects of merit just desperate for funding scattered right across regional UK.
Enough of the North/South claptrap please. Modern investment comes from international banks and funds with well researched risk assessments. If the investment is not forthcoming that is not because of anything happening in the south.
Direct investment into long-sidelined regional projects of merit would deliver substantial tangible benefits. Not just during a relatively brief construction phase but long afterwards too.
In that case lets build them too. What has that got to do with Heathrow?
Sending the hired-help home for the weekend? You appear to be under the impression that sucking talent out of the regions is a positive thing. It isn't. A policy of distributing public infrastructure investment equitably across the UK would see these hoardes deployed near to their homes with far greater economic benefit.
Stop banging that drum Shed, many of these people have learnt their skills and become very comfortable financially because of these large projects. There will always be the need to travel to work on these kinds of schemes. Many of the tunnellers on Crossrail came from a mining background in Yorkshire. Transport engineering is like that and always has been.
You're right. The Home Counties will do rather well out of it too.
