Yesterday the BAA announced plans to rebuild Heathrow Terminal Two
before the London Olympics in 2012. The Financial Times reports today
the comments of Mike Clasper, BAA's chief executive that some form of
road charging was likely to be needed at Heathrow - either an area wide
charge taking in the M25 and M4 or some localised Heathrow only access
to discourage motorists driving to the airport.This will , Mr Clasper,
says discourage driving to the airport and encourage the use of public
transport. This is all well and good but where then are the proposals
to improve rail access to Heathrow via the Staines curve or GWML
connection at Colnbrook from the south (Woking etc) and west (Reading)
as well as the Airtrack proposals to link Waterloo. Is the premium
Heathrow Express going to be subsumed into an augmented Central London
Heathrow service - ( I say chaps why don't we call such a spiffing idea
Crossrail) as is proposed for the Gatwick Express ;-}). Such
infrastructure does not pop up like mushrooms overnight - somebody
needs to start thinking and acting on infrastructure link improvements
now. Cynics might suggest this is a cunning plan by BAA to start
charging admission to the airports but fortunately such cynics do not
participate in this group.Mind you local residents do regard BAA's
assurances that " they have no further territorial claims to make" on a
par with " your cheque is in the post" and "of course, I'll respect you
in the morning".

Bob wrote:
Yesterday the BAA announced plans to rebuild Heathrow Terminal Two
before the London Olympics in 2012.

snip

OOI, does BAA recieve any Government funding, and will any of this work
be paid for by the Govt?
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Joe Patrick wrote:

OOI, does BAA recieve any Government funding, and will any of this work
be paid for by the Govt?
--
No BAA Plc is a regulated monopoly company. It owns Heathrow Airport
Limited who own the airport's runways, terminals etc. and the rail
infrastructure of the Heathrow Express from just south of the GW main
line junction. As far as I am aware it does not receive money from the
Government - in fact funds flow the other way in the form of corporate
taxes. The new terminal will be funded out of shareholder funds - as to
rail link investment I suspect that this would be sought from the
Government unless the Government were to make provision of ,or a
financial contribution to, suitable supporting infrastructure a
precondition of planning permission.The principle as to whether those
companies etc., that benefit from rail investment should contribute
towards the cost was established with the Jubilee Line extension to
Canary Wharf but is being looked at again carefully in connection with
Crossrail. In this case BAA is rebuilding a terminal which will further
exaserpate congestion around Heathrow and then proposes a congestion
charge on those caught up in the congestion. IMHO BAA should not be
allowed to develop Heathrow further unless it comes up with proposals
to improve its associated supporting infrastructure which should be
built either before or at the same time as the opening of any new
terminal development.

"Bob" wrote in message
oups.com...

Joe Patrick wrote:

OOI, does BAA recieve any Government funding, and will any of this work
be paid for by the Govt?
--
No BAA Plc is a regulated monopoly company. It owns Heathrow Airport
Limited who own the airport's runways, terminals etc. and the rail
infrastructure of the Heathrow Express from just south of the GW main
line junction. As far as I am aware it does not receive money from the
Government - in fact funds flow the other way in the form of corporate
taxes. The new terminal will be funded out of shareholder funds - as to
rail link investment I suspect that this would be sought from the
Government unless the Government were to make provision of ,or a
financial contribution to, suitable supporting infrastructure a
precondition of planning permission.The principle as to whether those
companies etc., that benefit from rail investment should contribute
towards the cost was established with the Jubilee Line extension to
Canary Wharf but is being looked at again carefully in connection with
Crossrail. In this case BAA is rebuilding a terminal which will further
exaserpate congestion around Heathrow and then proposes a congestion
charge on those caught up in the congestion. IMHO BAA should not be
allowed to develop Heathrow further unless it comes up with proposals
to improve its associated supporting infrastructure which should be
built either before or at the same time as the opening of any new
terminal development.


BAA should not be allowed to get away with this. The airport is major cause
of congestion in the surrounding area, and they say they want people to use
public transport. Then they charge an outrageous fare for using the railway
links, both Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect. Buses are not much
better, as they take circuitous routes. Our local link from Uxbridge, the
A10, now makes a tour of the Stockley Park business park on its route.
There are the Greenline 724 and Carousel A40 through Uxbridge as well, but
TfL refused a request to provide a combined stop for these and the A10; you
have to make a decision as to which to take as they use different stops in
Uxbridge.