Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Autolycus » Thu Dec 24, 2009 11:48 am

sds wrote:
Autolycus wrote:
sds wrote:These are complementary solutions to the same problem.


The problem with the airport 'express' bus service is that it can take as long to get to/ from the airport as you spend in the air from Heathrow etc. Even the 747 service which mostly avoids the M8 isn't what you'd call quick.

I've taken the 747 also, and I agree that it certainly isn't fast. It does, however, go round all the houses (almost literally), and so it's useful for many folks (hence, complementary to a train service). It's just not a speedy solution to get from the airport to the city and back no matter what way First spin it.


That's why we need a fast, direct rail link between Glasgow city centre and the airport. You need only look at the benefits for travellers to and from Prestwick airport since the dedicated railway station was built.

Of course, if someone doesn't believe air travel is neccessary .................. :roll:
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby sds » Thu Dec 24, 2009 12:35 pm

Autolycus wrote:Of course, if someone doesn't believe air travel is neccessary .................. :roll:

Indeed. For a short time there, GLA looked a bit screwed. If BAA were being forced to sell one of EDI or GLA, which one looked like a keeper with potential for continued growth into the future? GLA with its cancelled GARL, or EDI with its new tram link?

Of course, one could argue that this would be a good thing, and somebody else might do a better job than BAA. And now BAA aren't being forced to sell one of their Scottish airports, so the point is moot. Regardless, the timing of the cancellation of GARL made things look rather grim for a while.

EDIT: All busier airports in the UK have some kind of rail connection (if you include Edinburgh's upcoming tram service). The only saving grace is that since a whole bunch of the money on GARL has been allocated to line improvements, capacity expansion, new rolling stock, etc, that the scheme can be picked up in the future. Only the branch line and new station are cancelled, so far as I've been able to tell.
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Autolycus » Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:22 am

It seems Finance Secretary John Swinney rejected an offer by Network Rail to salvage the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (Garl) immediately after the prestige project was cancelled last September.

“John Swinney was approached by Network Rail around the time that Garl was cancelled with an offer to use its own borrowing powers to fund it..........."

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/poli ... -1.1004916
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Quality Mince » Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:27 pm

For what it’s worth I feel that Glasgow Airport is a complete non-starter as a true international airport. Look at the facts:
• The runway is hemmed in by a motorway at one side and the R. Clyde at the other;
• It cannot accommodate the biggest jets currently flying. A fully laden 747 cannot take off at Glasgow as the runway is too short. The airport will never see an Airbus A380.
• The are all sorts of environmental concerns about aircraft noise pollution given the close proximity of the airport to nearby built-up areas;
• Any rail link will be extremely expensive to build given the commercial and residential nature of built up area such a link would pass through;
• There is no room to expand the terminal building further. I think that the present terminal building to be a complete disaster; and
• I would think that a second runway would be impossible to build, although this is an opinion and not a fact.

Really, Prestwick Airport should have been developed as Glasgow’s main airport. Alas, that opportunity has now gone.
• Prestwick is closer to Glasgow than Gatwick is to London;
• It has a rail link which could easily be developed further to take trains closer to the terminal building;
• Prestwick has a huge runway easily capable of handling the biggest jets in the world,
• There is a much lesser environmental impact – aircraft typically take off over the sea and land over predominately countryside;
• There is now an excellent road link from Glasgow to Prestwick; and
• There is not the same lack of space which has blighted Glasgow’s ever-expanding terminal building;
• There are areas around Prestwick which could be developed for associated industries.

Anyway, Glasgow Airport is destined to remain a provincial airport forever which is somewhat sad. A new rail link will not make a huge difference and should rightly be scrapped.
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:37 pm

Quality Mince:
Look at the facts:.....I would think that a second runway would be impossible to build, although this is an opinion and not a fact.


Aye Kwality.
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Quality Mince » Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:58 pm

Dexter,
you're quite right..I made a complete arse of that and that's a fact!! or is it an opinion??
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby hazy » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:36 pm

If we were a forward thinking country we would shut both Glasgow and Edinburgh airport and have a fresh modern airport in central Scotland with motorway and rail links built in to the . As for the SNP goverment I am extremly dissatisfied that they are just ignoring the whole GARL situation. Glasgow really does get a raw deal from our Goverments.
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Autolycus » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:58 pm

It was interesting to hear Michael O'Leary of Ryanair talking about expanding engineering facilities at Glasgow Prestwick airport and expanding routes from "Glasgow Edinburgh" airport.
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Josef » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:27 pm

hazy wrote:Glasgow really does get a raw deal from our Goverments.


I don't believe this for one second. Evidence, please, as Dex would say. And within the last decade, please.
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby hazy » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:31 pm

Mueseums
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:41 pm

Josef wrote:
hazy wrote:Glasgow really does get a raw deal from our Goverments.


I don't believe this for one second. Evidence, please, as Dex would say. And within the last decade, please.


It's actually well documented since th fifties that regardless of who was in power the Scottish Office were determined to cut Glasgow down to size and remove the natives to Cumbernauld, Glenrothes, East Kilbride etc. Strathclyde which was seen only to benefit Glasgow and Argyll had to go.

The Scotsman 5th September 2002

Secret plot to strip Glasgow of influence

John Staples

THE post-war British government had a secret and systematic plan to strip Glasgow of its political dominance and economic might within Scotland, new historical research claimed yesterday.

For 25 years, the Edinburgh-based Scottish Office plotted to downgrade the importance of the nation’s largest city, according to the study.

Professor Ian Levitt, of the University of Central Lancashire, claims that civil servants in the capital “perverted” post-war regeneration efforts to create a mass exodus from Glasgow. The Edinburgh-born academic claims he has unearthed damaging documentary evidence which shows the Scottish Office tried to: keep new industry and jobs out of the city; move existing firms from Glasgow; drive residents into new towns; prevent the local authority from having control over these new areas and stop Glasgow extending its borders.
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Josef » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:54 pm

Thanks, Dex, but I've seen that thread. WIthin the last decade, please. I'll even extend that period to two decades, which covers the period I've been working either directly or indirectly with Public Services in Scotland, and in which I personally have seen nothing but evidence to the contrary.
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:07 pm

You can't recall Michael Forsyth discovering areas of deprivation conveniently within the few Conservative seats in Scotland and making Urban Aid funding available to them?

He achieved this by diverting funding from Glasgow. Glasgow still had 50% of Scotlands areas of deprivation but now only 30% of the funding available to tackle it.
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Josef » Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:17 pm

The answer to that post is contained within it.

That was simple electioneering, in the same way that a Government Minister would suddenly discover the hitherto unrecognised need to build a bridge or bypass, or to support a local car/arms factory in difficulties, in a marginal constituency. The money has to come from somewhere. In the case cited, if Glasgow had 50% of the previously defined affected areas and new (undeserving or not) areas require funds, then it's obvious what area will suffer the most from funds diversion. That's not an anti-Glasgow bias,
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Re: Glasgow Airport Rail Link (G.A.R.L.) Project Photographs

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:12 am

Josef wrote:The answer to that post is contained within it.

That was simple electioneering, in the same way that a Government Minister would suddenly discover the hitherto unrecognised need to build a bridge or bypass, or to support a local car/arms factory in difficulties, in a marginal constituency. The money has to come from somewhere. In the case cited, if Glasgow had 50% of the previously defined affected areas and new (undeserving or not) areas require funds, then it's obvious what area will suffer the most from funds diversion. That's not an anti-Glasgow bias,


Thank you Lord Denning for another myopic point of view. But you may recall it failed but the successor government did not replace the funding. They also diminished Glasgow's tax base by carefully redrawing the boundary taking Rutherglen out and leaving Castlemilk in.
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