<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><edm>
<id>36283</id>
<session>2007-08</session>
<number>1873A2</number>
<title>Heathrow And The High-Speed Rail Alternative</title>
<proposer id="10643">David Wilshire</proposer>
<date>2008-07-03</date>
<text>leave out from `June;' to end and add `notes that, even if UK domestic passengers switched to rail travel, Heathrow would still be operating at 90 per cent. of capacity and still need a third runway; further notes the example of Japan, where high-speed bullet trains co-exist with one of the world's busiest domestic flight networks, France, which has been a long-time leader in European high-speed rail, and which has a hub airport at Paris with twice as many runways as Heathrow, and Spain which has invested heavily in high-speed rail and has also doubled the number of runways at Madrid Airport from two to four; and therefore believes that rail complements air travel but cannot replace it, and that high-speed rail is not an alternative to a third runway at Heathrow.'.</text>
<topics>
	<topic>Aviation</topic>
	<topic>Railways</topic>
</topics>
<signatures>
	<signature>
		<mp id="10643">David Wilshire</mp>
		<date>2008-07-03</date>
		<type>Proposed</type>
		<constituency>Spelthorne</constituency>
		<party>Conservative</party>
	</signature>
</signatures>
</edm>
