UK Approves Third Heathrow Runway With Proposed High-Speed Rail As Environmental Carrot - Guardian

[hatrack]

Call me crazy, but would anybody like to bet on the likelihood of the runway getting built, only to have the rail system deleted because of "excessive costs" or "lack of demand"?

:eyes:

A new electrified high speed rail line linking London, Birmingham and Heathrow will form the centrepiece of a major government transport initiative today that will include a third runway at Britain's largest airport. Gordon Brown will defy environmental critics and the Conservative party when the government formally unveils the package that will herald what ministers are dubbing a "green Heathrow".

The most dramatic element will be the building of a railway hub at Heathrow which will form part of a new 200mph rail line, running parallel to the congested west coast mainline, linking London and Birmingham direct, with a spur to Heathrow from St Pancras station, linking the new line to Britain's current high speed Eurostar line to Paris and Brussels.

The government will declare that it is delivering a new high speed link for the whole of the west coast mainline to the north-west of England even though the new line will stop at Birmingham. This is because most of the congestion occurs around Birmingham, allowing new trains to continue at speed, though not the full 200mph, to Manchester and Liverpool even after they come off the new line.

Greenpeace and the Tories last night pledged to maintain their opposition to Heathrow's third runway, with the environmental group vowing to ensure it would not be built. But Brown believes the announcement will trump the Tories. David Cameron told his party conference last year a Tory government would abandon a third runway and instead build a rail link between London, Birmingham and Leeds.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/15/heathrow-third-runway