Letter: UK imagination and action fall short – despite all the debates

I have been grateful for the forward thinking of Europeans generally, being able to take Eurostar to Brussels (linked by the singular Shrewsbury/London train) through Cologne to Frankfurt and Frankfurt Airport (no changes after Brussels on a direct fast train to Frankfurt airport).

How many UK regional trains beyond the M25 arrive directly at Heathrow's front door?

Here in the UK, we bluster over Heathrow expansion which even now, may never happen.

And further afield here in Shropshire, our linked transport systems now boast a regular bus service from Telford region up to Manchester Airport.

That's high speed Britain on the move, subject to road congestion of course, but good luck to that entrepreneur.

I suspect that a European version of Shropshire would long since have made good use of the sugar beet site at Allscott and created a park and ride high speed link to both Birmingham and Manchester Airports, serving Shropshire, Herefordshire and Mid-Wales.

They might even have built that much needed hospital on the same site, part funded by revenues from that same Park and Ride offering. But that's where UK imagination and action fall well short, although we are very good at extended debate on the matter.

All this suggests to me the Heathrow joke is alive and well.

New services to Newquay? – Great, but they existed years ago before they were dropped by BA alongside many other regional links!

How backwards we in the UK are.

"UK Open for Business", some smiles across European transport planners at that one.

Robert Leivers, Admaston (formerly of Brymon Airways)

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