Telegrammed by the International Correspondent
The dogfight between High Speed Railers and the Aviationists hotted up over Birmingham last week when the Birmingham Post provided the oxygen of publicity to RAF Elmdon (better known as Birmingham International Airport).
The airport authorities, anxious to be seen to protect their customer base of small domestic airlines scrambled their crack fighter ace to strike at the heart of high speed rail's environmental claims:
Mr Morris said: “I think what you will see is companies like Flybe changing the way they operate, adapting, and improving their service.
“The Eurostar did not put an end to cross channel ferries and in the same way I think a high speed rail network will not put an end to short-haul and domestic flights.
“There’s no doubt that travelling from Birmingham to London is best done by train - that is why we have no flights there from Birmingham. “But getting to Glasgow and Edinburgh is better done by air.
“You just have to look at the lower carbon emissions for the journeys, the quicker journey times, and a noise footprint that is significantly less than the 300-mile one left by trains”.
But who is the Flying Spokesman?
Surely the sharp-shooting and combatative Baron Von Richtmorris of the airport is not the same Class 40-loving John Morris who was for many years Chief Apologist for Cross Country, and who became dis-invented after daring to suggest that Virgin's Voyagers were a less than optimum transport solution?
And who supported the Red Revolution from the inside by painting a XC Class 86 engine in, er, chic but very retro Caledonian Railway 1920s blue livery?
Perhaps we should be told.
