Learning from international approaches to improving rail lines

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported prominently last week that when Terminal 5 at Heathrow opens next month, passengers will be confronted with more advertising than at almost any other airport in the world.

From giant billboards overlooking security lines to television screens in the underground train station, the ads have been positioned in ways BAA hopes will make them impossible to avoid. There are 333 billboards or posters and 206 flat-screen TV sets, which can change ads to target specific flights. By contrast, Los Angeles International has 34 advertising TV sets in the entire airport and New York's John F. Kennedy International has 40.

BAA is also supporting the case for a feasibility study into the western mainline link.

TVEP is still waiting for a response from Rosie Winterton, the transport minister, to the letter I sent her recently, and shared with you on the 31st January entry.
The government must not be allowed to drag its feet on this issue.

In the same issue of the WSJ I read that the Americans have decided to pour huge sums of money into revitalising the country’s rail infrastructure.

Of course – compared with European and Japanese railways – US rail roads have long been a bit of a joke, apart from some isolated examples such as the Washington subway, the new Skytrain at JFK airport, the BART in San Francisco, and the AMTRACK between Boston, New York and Washington.
But in the past seven years over $10 billion has been spent on upgrading track and locomotives, and, according to the Journal, another $10 billion is about to be spent.

The new investments will draw freight business away from over congested roads, particularly goods and a portion of the huge volume of Chinese and Korean imports landing on the west coast and train shipped to the east.

America, of course, is not the only country engaged in new rail building. China has a major expansion programme. We saw at our transport forum in November a video of the superfast train that whisks passengers from Shanghai to the city’s outlying airport in just seven minutes. China is now expanding these trains – using German technology – to other intercity routes. France announced last week a further expansion of its wonderful TGV network.

But here in Britain – apart from prestige lines like Paris to London which drops passengers in the part of the capital they are least likely to want to visit – the government is dragging its feet. It is essential that the Great Western line is electrified, like every other significant main line. It is shortsighted that the Thames Valley, one of the few areas of the country that is producing growth as much of the rest of the economy sinks, still has no direct rail link to London Heathrow. We will ultimately win our argument for this. We can report very slight progress in recent weeks. We need the support of everyone in the Thames Valley and beyond to get this new railway in place.