Heathrow and high-speed rail pt 2

He comments that "there is not a lot of demand-modelling data - there is a missing link in terms of who would use this". For example, he points out, despite there being a TGV station at Paris Charles de Gaulle, there are still something like five flights per day to the airport from places like Lyon and Strasbourg which have TGV service. Plus flights to Orly as well. Although on the "quite short" routes from Lille and Brussels there has been "substitution".

He points out that flights from Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds - key markets that high speed rail could link to Heathrow - account for less than 3% of heathrow's movements.

He sums up BAA's current position thus: "We believe the idea of chossign between air and rail capacity is a false choice and would lead to to the UK losing competitiveness at a very difficult time. Clearly we need both rail and airport capacity."

Stressing BAA's fear of being out-competed by foreign hubs like Charles de Gaulle, Schiphol and Frankfurt he shows a slide illustrating major cities that have no non-stop service to Heathrow, and another listing 20 cities that have non-stops to those competitors but not to Heathrow.

Perhaps most importantly he makes clear that BAA does want a high-speed rail link. "It is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create this. It is an ambitious plan but we believe it is a substantial and achievable one and we have targetted ourselves to put forward proposals by summer 2009."