Heathrow announcement is difficult for Gordon Brown but could be good for Birmingham
A major announcement which could be important for the West Midlands is expected tomorrow (as I write this - ie Thursday).
Ministers are apparently going to give the go-ahead to a third runway at Heathrow, sparking a major row with Labour London MPs who have been campaigning against the planned expansion.
Potential good news for us is that the scheme involves a new high speed rail line, initially linking Heathrow with London's St Pancras station, where the Eurostar departs.
The long term plan may be to extend high speed rail northwards - possibly to Birmingham, relieving pressure on the West Coast Main Line.
I doubt everything will be entirely clear even once the announcement is made this week, but it's definitely something to watch in the long term.
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Forget it. this silly system never works.
Forget it. this silly system never works.
Forget runway 3 the High Speed rail link will remove the need to build it.
Not only that but construction of the HS link will provide relief for the present rail network freeing up its use for commuter rail services and freight.
When these benefits are supplemented by transfer of journeys made by car and freight transferred from lorries to rail providing relief for motorways the benefit of High Speed rail is undeniable a fact European nations have long recognised.
40 minutes London to Birmingham and even less to a Heathrow rail terminal with evebn greater reductions to Manchester/Liverpool/Leeds/Newcastle/Edinburgh and Glasgow will mean the need for expansion of Local airports will no longer be necesaary.
Regional airports need not lose their long distance services in fact it would be sensible to keep these to take more long distance traffic from Heathrow.
So here we have a win win situation.
Has the government the courage to ignore the 'aviation for everything' dinosaurs and begin to develope a really sensible low carbon low oil sustainable transport system.