| Topic: | Re:Re:I'm all for Heathrow expansion (not) | |
| Posted by: | Paul Morris | |
| Date/Time: | 26/11/07 20:49:00 |
| Gary You suggest expansion at LHR means more jobs and prosperity for the area. Do you notice any lack of jobs and prosperity in London or Chiswick, or most other parts of London these days? I dont. I do notice lots of foreign workers that are coming in to fill the surplus jobs we already have. I also notice a road system that is close to gridlock, deterioriating air quality, a shortage of affordable housing, and night flights that stop me getting a good nights sleep. Most of the jobs at LHR are pretty low quality in the scheme of the global economy, like shop staff, security, baggage handling etc. These jobs are not exactly the cutting edge of the information world. As others have stated, the fastest growing group of passengers are transit. They ara a negative for the UK economy, filling seats and driving up prices for domestic travellers. Phasing out transit passengers would give ample capacity for growth. As to your suggestions that LHR is anything close to world class airport, I think you are having a laugh. The place is a disorganised dump that is suffering from years of under investment. Before the govnt gives BAA the green light for expansion they might actually get them to prove that they can handle the capacity they have. A domestic high speed rail line would remove the need for many of the internal flights in the UK. This would be good for the regions, perhaps easing a little of the overcrowding in the south east. Expanding LHR will suck in more passengers from the regions, further increasing the strain on our overcrowded roads and motorways, people who would otherwise happily travel from local airports. There was a fantastic article by Simon Jenkins in the sunday times destroying the 3rd runway, and a pretty good one in tonights evenin g standard. If you really believe in the need for a 3rd runway, perhaps you could take apart their arguments. |