Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Brazen]

Then there is Palermo District Council, they are often problematic when seeking diplomatic deals of any variety 

But for the bargain price of just €5000 a month they can ensure none of your imports fall victim to any... accidents...

[Tamas]

Re Heathrow : I think it is extremely unlikely that the extra capacity will go unused. Even if the wider UK economy takes a hit from brexit then that will merely encourage the use of a relatively cheap alternative. We have been forcing business over to airports like Schiphol, Zurich and Frankfurt for years with our undersized Heathrow.

Fair enough. Although apparently this will require a new tunnel for the M25?

[celedhring]

It must be a nightmare to deal with all the traffic Heathrow pulls with only 2 runways. El Prat has 3 runways and half the overall traffic, and it still gets bad during peak times.

[Richard Hakluyt]

They have been talking about expanding London's airports all my life. I remember protest notices by the roadside of the A1 in Buckinghamshire back in 1965. This place is so like Toytown sometimes that it becomes laughable.

I wonder if they will finish the third runway before I die of old age  ?


The sorry history of London airport expansion :  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33285659

[garbon]

They have been talking about expanding London's airports all my life. I remember protest notices by the roadside of the A1 in Buckinghamshire back in 1965. This place is so like Toytown sometimes that it becomes laughable.

I wonder if they will finish the third runway before I die of old age  ?


The sorry history of London airport expansion :  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33285659

Wow BBC is quite snarky in that article.

This results in the government's Future of Air Transport White Paper which recommends a third runway at Heathrow - sound familiar?

Gordon Brown's Labour government backs a third runway at Heathrow, but this is opposed by the Conservatives, despite the fact that the first Thatcher government originally supported the idea.

The government launches yet another consultation on the "draft aviation policy framework", and sets up the Airports Commission chaired by economist Sir Howard Davies. The Commission is tasked with assessing what extra capacity UK airports will need and inevitably publishes consultation documents. It's like Groundhog Day.

Sir Howard publishes his final recommendations. Will the new Conservative government finally grasp the nettle and make a decision or, as history suggests, kick the can further down the road?
As Yogi Berra had it: "The future ain't what it used to be."

[Josquius]

They should just do the sensible thing and put it at Birmingham and be done with it.

[Duque de Bragança]

They should just do the sensible thing and put it at Birmingham and be done with it.

Could only work with some real high-speed train links with London airports and London itself. Combined high-speed rail and train fares exist in France and Germany, Roissy CDG TGV station helps alot, like Frankfurt Flughafen bahnhof, smaller scale though for Frankfurt.
Did they start works on London-Birmingham HSL eventually? Or is it still in NIMBY stage?

[Gups]

They should just do the sensible thing and put it at Birmingham and be done with it.

God only knows why they bothered to appoint a highly qualified commission to spend months reading and  hearing all the evidence and write a long-arsed report setting out the pros and cons of each option when they could have just got a one-liner from you.

[Josquius]

Would have saved them a few bob and given a better end result.
Same thing for this brexit nonsense.

[Gups]

They should just do the sensible thing and put it at Birmingham and be done with it.

Could only work with some real high-speed train links with London airports and London itself. Combined high-speed rail and train fares exist in France and Germany, Roissy CDG TGV station helps alot, like Frankfurt Flughafen bahnhof, smaller scale though for Frankfurt.
Did they start works on London-Birmingham HSL eventually? Or is it still in NIMBY stage?

It's just finishing off in Parliament. Works will probably start Spring next year.

Rail links aren't the issue. There is not sufficient passenger demand, airline demand or infrastructure for freight storage and onward transportation. Birmingham airport is way under utilised already, with just one runway. 

[Duque de Bragança]

It's just finishing off in Parliament. Works will probably start Spring next year.

Rail links aren't the issue. There is not sufficient passenger demand, airline demand or infrastructure for freight storage and onward transportation. Birmingham airport is way under utilised already, with just one runway.

Now, that's a huge blocking point. Plus, an under-utilised airport with only one runway makes it seem like hopeless, for the second UK city. Really grim if true.

[Tamas]

Boris Johnson is heavily opposing this, so I it must be a constructive, good thing!

[Gups]

It's just finishing off in Parliament. Works will probably start Spring next year.

Rail links aren't the issue. There is not sufficient passenger demand, airline demand or infrastructure for freight storage and onward transportation. Birmingham airport is way under utilised already, with just one runway.

Now, that's a huge blocking point. Plus, an under-utilised airport with only one runway makes it seem like hopeless, for the second UK city. Really grim if true.

Yep. Unfortunately, most people think they know about airports because they fly out of one on holiday once a year. Freight infrastructure is the one of the biggest reasons why Heathrow (1.5bn tonnes pa) is preferable to Gatwick (75-90m tonnes pa).

Midlands freight mainly goes through East Midlands airport (300m tpa) which has the necessary infrastructure  rather than Birmingham (a laughable 7m tpa)

[Richard Hakluyt]

It is rather impressive what they manage to squeeze out of Heathrow with its two runways.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Even if Gups has inadvertently multiplied the freight by a thousand.