Runway poser for Johnson

LONDON: Having backed Britain’s proposed high-speed railway HS2, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under pressure to keep his pledge to scrap plans for a third runway at London Heathrow airport as climate fears intensify.

Johnson said earlier this month that the country would shortly begin full construction work on HS2, dismissing soaring costs.

The project, while quickening train journeys between London in southeast England and major cities in the north, will also free up capacity on existing lines and aims to help rebalance the UK economy.

While construction of the HS2 line is set to produce vast amounts of carbon emissions and destroy ancient woodlands and wildlife, according to experts, its electric trains are set to be far more environmentally friendly than planes making similar trips.

Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May in 2018, approved a new runway at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, three years after Johnson had promised to “lie down in front of bulldozers and stop the construction”, citing environmental as well as aesthetic concerns.

Her government argued that the project would provide a major boost to Britain’s economy, creating for example up to 114,000 local jobs by 2030.

An MP from the small Liberal Democrat party recently asked the Johnson if he would carry through with his 2015 bulldozer promise. Replying to the question by Liberal MP Munira Wilson, Johnson said he had “seen no bulldozers at present nor any immediate prospect of them arriving”.

To allay environmental concerns, Heathrow last year said it planned to reroute rivers and roads as part of the construction work. – AFP