Flightblogging.com

So the Tories have now told us that they want to scrap plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport, and build a new high speed rail route instead. Whatever the economic and environmental ramifications of this proposal, can it actually work?

In France, the TGV has certainly taken a massive chunk out of the domestic flights market, virtually wiping out flights between Paris and Lyons, and encouraging Marseilles airport to fight back by building the first dedicated budget terminal in Europe.

The train has already seen significant gains in market share on the London to Manchester route, whereas flights between London and Liverpool have also been chopped.

But could a single high speed rail route between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds really negate the need for a third runway at Heathrow? Or, given the current economic outlook and longer term environmental concerns, does that need still exist at all?

• News article & comment:

“A third runway at Heathrow would be a completely privately funded project, whereas building a new high-speed rail line between London and Leeds is going to require a minimum of £20 billion to get going, and we know how much these projects always overrun. This proposal contains an element of private funding, but around 4/5 of the cost will still come from the public purse.”

I’ve just logged in and realised that it has been over a year since I’ve made a post here on Flight Blogging.com.

I’m really sorry for being out of the loop - there are some personal and business reasons which I’ll elaborate on later, but in the meantime I just want to get things moving again, so here goes….