Thursday, November 22, 2007

Is sustainability sacrificed on the Heathrow altar?

Read this today:
Stansted runway plan scrapped in favour of Heathrow growth - Times Online

Doesn't this prove two things?
- That the government is in bed with BAA
- That the government has no commitment to sustainability

If there was somthing like a sensible to drive the transport policy, plans would have been made a long time ago to build high-speed rail links to the Midlands and to Scotland, with connections in Stanstead or Luton or even Heathrow. The Germans and French have done it a long time ago, after all it does not make any sense that a lot of Heathrow slots are used for those destinations.
As a proofpoint, in 15 years, the Eurostar has gained about 70% market share between London and Paris against the airlines.

Secondly, why direct all investment to Heathrow which is one of the only airports in Europe whose flight paths are directly above a city? No less than 2 millions people are affected -it is time to recognise the indirect costs as Sandy suggests in her comment (on the Times article)?

Just as a reminder, the Government is trying to bury a study on noise itself has commissionned.

Do act now: inform yourself and sign the petition now...


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