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airport links
The Bow Group, a right-wing "Think" tank, is calling for any north-south high-speed rail line to have direct links to major airports, and mentions Heathrow, Birmingham and Manchester.

What is wrong with Birmingham airport's current high-speed rail link? With Virgin Pendolinos and Voyagers stopping there frequently en-route to Birmingham and Euston, things couldn't be too much quicker.

All in all, travel to Birmingham airport by rail is a very un-British experience; good rail links on quality trains, then straight onto the fully automated monorail which takes you the 600 metres to the terminal. Somehow one would expect the monorail, which opened in 2003, to break down a lot. In fact, frequent users of the airport will testify, it's incredibly reliable.

The monorail runs on the track created for the maglev system which when it opened in 1984 was the world's first commercial maglev.
20.01.10 @ 04:03 PM CST [link]