Have these men bought the same transport ticket?
And so it's over.
That unlikely alliance of campaigners, the councils, the residents and environmentalists have won.
The third runway has been scrapped by the new Government. A campaigner I've met many times over the years said she couldn't stop crying when she heard the news this afternoon.
When I asked her what she's going to do now, she said she's going to go back to being a mum. There will be parties tonight in Sipson which was due to be demolished.
It was always common ground between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
As Transport Xtra point out.
There is caution from campaigners because there's a history of broken promises over expansion at Heathrow.
Campaigners say they'll be pushing for a timescale now on how long the third runway will be ruled out for. They want an indefinite committment.
Analysts have told me the airline industry will now be looking to make contact with the new Government to put its case for expansion elsewhere.
They will be very disappointed and will have fears Heathrow will no longer be competitive. And there is still serious concern it could hit jobs and the economy.
Take a walk down Coldharbour Lane in Hayes and most there will probably think a lack of capacity at Heathrow will be a huge blow.
The airport's owner BAA aren't saying much. A spokesperson said:
"We will work with the new Government to ensure that airports policy provides the strong international trading connections on which the UK's jobs and future competitiveness depend."Elsewhere there's also common ground on transport. Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats want longer franchises for the trains. With Crossrail both have supported it but neither will write a blank cheque. That could mean we see it reduced in size, perhaps shorter carriages or shorter routes.
Crossrail executives did tell me on Monday though that they were confident the funding would appear.
And what about Transport for London?
No comment from them at the moment. But could the Government's grant to them be cut as part of the comprehensive spending review?
Is London's position now stronger with a Conservative dominated Government and a Tory Mayor?
And will Boris Johnson's relationship with David Cameron make a difference?
Let me know what you think...
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~12~RS~)
Comments
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It never made sense for the rest of the entire economy to be eventually forced to be carbon neutral just so air travel could go on unchecked.
As someone who has only flown twice I don't see why I should be expected to give up using electrical items, central heating and driving a car just so other people can jet around the world for fun.
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I'm slightly perplexed by the comment from mr. Stewart from Greenpeace. Is he suggesting that reducing the time currently spent by arriving aircrafts waiting in queue (at present something around 10 minutes on average pr arrival), would somehow be bad for the environment?
A cautious figure of 15 arrivals per hour, leads to a figure of 150 minutes wasted pr hour on circling the skies over London. That's a return flight to say, Paris, Frankfurt or Copenhagen every hour.
The third runway was approved with the express guarantee, that BAA would not increase the number of flights into Heathrow (something the current infrastructure pretty much forbids anyway), and would only be used to bring down the arrival delays.
And despite the popular misconception, not everyone 'jet around the world for fun'. There's quite a number of business travellers who do so as well.
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And so the Madness has started. Stoping the third runway will NOT stop people Flying, They will now Fly to Amsterdam or the like and might, make the trip to Britain. When will these People who campaign against Airport expansion stand up and explain how they travel abroad, of course they fly perhaps not from their Local Airport but that airport is local to some people. It has taken Millions of pounds to get to this stage and wasted billions of pounds in Job Tourism and Tax's this New Govenment was going to cut down on waste, well you have got off to a terible start.
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Britain will be far far behind amongst developed countries! Government should know that world is not static, other countires are moving. Government is heading back to stone age!
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Giles Jones: "As someone who has only flown twice I don't see why I should be expected to give up using electrical items"
Do you think your electrical items or the business that created them don't fly? As a consumer, you are part of the problem.
I wish Labour had seen how deeply unpopular and stupid this policy was. Everything in business and politics should be seen as the thin end of the wedge. BAA were always going to use the third runway to its maximum potential, if not now, then in the future.
I hate to admit it, but this simple policy has probably done more for public confidence in the government than Labour have managed in the last 18 months. I hope some Labour MP's are reading this. You lost touch!
Only an idiot would sanction more runways in the current climate. It's like saying you're going to reduce crime by cutting Police funding - ConDem take note.
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I'm far more interested in what the ConDem coalition is going to do with local transport funding.
It seems that this will be one of the first victims of the swinging axe of spending cuts. Yet, at the same time both parties are keen to spend billions and billions on High Speed Rail that will shave 30 minutes or so off of long-distance rail journeys.
This is madness. Far more CO2 is emitted by the millions of local car-driving commuters in our towns and cities than is emitted by people taking internal flights from London to the North. Spending £20 billion + on High Speed Rail is simply wasteful during a period when budgets are under severe pressure. This is especially so when we still have major cities, including Bristol and Leeds, without a mass transit system beyond bog standard buses.
High Speed Rail, and indeed Crossrail, are grandiose, hugely expensive schemes that should be dropped. More money should be invested in the public transport infrastructure of regional cities.
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I also hope that they have genuinely shelved airport expansion, and haven't simply decided to quietly push it to the Thames Estuary. That's hardly better environmentally, creating an artificial island to dump an airport in an area known for its nature reserves.
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This will just move business to Amsterdam and Paris. Need to invest in how to lower emmissions. We have now closed nearly all the pits and are now desperate for energy and will have to pay the French for their electricity.
Should have invested heavily in cleaning and burning the coal better.
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