When Madrid Barajas T4 opened, they had a wealth of failures. But then , everybody here was not surprised , everyone take it for granted that it will not be working properly until some weeks later : "oh, well, this is Spain, things work like that" :)

Now , I'm thinking Spaniards are not alone :)

Well yes perhaps in Spain too

with the fiasco of the high-speed AVE Madrid-Barcelona line's legendary problems.

Now , I'm thinking Spaniards are not alone >>>

Certainly not. We know all our big projects will go tits-up (technical term). However we always hope that it will be "alright on the night" and that we'll muddle through as we usually do.

Bob, I wouldn't have thought whether or not the Diana fountain worked properly was exactly of international importance!

BTW, the Eye is now one of the UK's top tourists attractions. As for the Pendolino trains, the survival rate of the Cumbria train crash rather suggests that was money well spent.

RM

I agree

it just seems that so many ballyhooed things have such unexpected problems

But T5 Heathrow thing tops them all for incompetence IMO

incredible and yes could happen anywhere i guess

maybe it's Gordon Brown's fault?

flanner wasn't aware of that one.

On my theme - anyone catch Grand Designs on C4 the other week. The one with the Baufritz house in Bath. The Germans planned everything to perfection - built the house in 4 days 8 hours 32 minutes (around 45 minutes ahead of schedule). the only part that was left to the Brits was the stone facing. Sure enough 7 months after completion Kevin McCloud came to do his "oh haven't you done well to only over-spend the budget by 245% interview". Sure enough the house still was without its cladding.

Life is so much easy to face with social stereotypes and generalisations, don't you know.

OK, so "it's just an opening day" huh? Are we still "blaming the customer" now that BA has announced continued cancellations through the middle of next week?

I'm sorry, but the ineptitude of the tag team of BA and BAA is just TOO familiar to frequent Heathrow frequent travelers.

Haven't heard any more BA pilot strike updates, but this T-5 thing could all be resolved with a strike.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...irwaysbusiness

I wonder how many of the 15,000 plus bags stranded at Heathrow will ever get returned to their owners. Plus many travelers are complaining that they can't get through to the BA T5 help line.

BA pilots are furious about this debacle...on one web site, they said they felt like "lions led by donkeys."

How different the reality is from the triumphant crowing about T5 that accompanies the Queen's visit:

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Sir Nigel Rudd, chairman of airports operator BAA, which has funded the terminal, said the building represented "a living, breathing advertisement for Britain's ambition".

"Terminal 5 marks the start of a new beginning for Heathrow, for BAA and for our millions of passengers," he said.

"It is by any standard a triumph of ambition, commitment and collaboration. It will breathe new life into Heathrow, allowing us to continue our transformation of the rest of the airport and will put Heathrow and BAA back where they belong - at the leading edge of global travel."

Which airlines are going to be moved to T5? I'm flying in on American in mid May, do I need to figure out a way to take everything carry on?

I didn't realize Heathrow was opening a new terminal when I made my reservations months ago. Whoops.

Kenderina, que comico! Love your sense of humor. Seems Madrid has things figured out now, and I'm sure London will soon, too. I hope so, by September, when we pass thru Heathrow, lol!

we need to give up the olympics before we really embarrass ourselves. of course, all things have their problems but the problems causing this mess here are deep and cultural. we manage by figurehead and entitlement. 'detail' is beneath us....we'll just hire people with paper qualifications to manage the detail. the problem is that these clowns can't see the bigger picture when their nose is stuck in their qualifications. 'understanding a customer' - that's just a vulgar little detail for the figureheads and a far too complex and multi-disciplined concept for a qualification junky to understand.

so we have our figureheads - the useless clowns with sir in their name and we have our qualified this and qualified that who aren't trained to see the forest for the trees (or however that expression goes).

then we have the indifference in the society that encourages our businesses and governments to produce such slop.

Iowa redhead - T5 is for BA only, so you don't need to worry.
I on the other hand do - I'm booked BA from AMS to PHX via LHR T5. It was the reason I decided finally on BA - that I'd not have to negotiate half of LHR to transfer flights. I'm hoping it is sorted by May.
I heard this morning that BA are now not going to transfer all long haul flights to T5 for several months. So I may end up on a schlepp through Heathrow after all, always assuming I can get there in the first place. I shall keep a close eye on the BA site!

They had similar problems in Hong Kong and (I think) Dallas.
You'd have thought that the BAA people would have had the sense to go to both places, asked what went wrong and learned by the mistakes.
Personally, I'd have started by transferring just a few flights to begin with and gradually building up.
But, then I'm just a daft little old lady ;-)

Well, at least its roof hasn't collapsed (yet) unlike that airport just north-east of Paris.

Now you think this is bad what do we do about the Olympic games (ask every one to come back in a week's time).

<<< unlike that airport just north-east of Paris. >>>

You mean the main Paris Airport - Charles de Gaulle - and it was one section in a passageway

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3739715.stm

I thought that it was quite obvious to which airport I was referring. (Orly is south).

The collapse at Terminal 2E in 2004 might have just been one section in a passageway, but it did result in all of terminal 2E being demolished and rebuilt. It is due to open this summer.

"the APT advanced passenger train on whose press run frightened all the media on it and had to abort"

Nonsense. Journalists got pissed and got sick, big deal. Politicians pushed the train into 'service' despite it being in no way ready. Don't blame the people working on the thing, and look up the definition of 'prototype'.

And when on the East Coast Main Line, remember that much of the train is a direct descendent of the APT.