Pass Go and collect the money

Michael Harrison On the collapse of the channel rail link project and BA's NEW LOW-COST AIRLINE

When the design consultancy Wolff Olins was asked to devise a name for Eurotunnel's car shuttle service, it came up with, er, Le Shuttle , pocketed its pounds 3m and left. Now, thanks to the same outfit, we will have to fly with Go if we want to sample British Airways new no-frills, low-cost carrier.

Go, the PR blurb gushes, was chosen because it reflects the character of the airline and the sort of folk who will use it, the "get up and Go" type in fact.

Presumably BA knows that Go is the also the name of a board game, an energy drink, a range of hardware, a brand of T-shirt and a piece of surgical equipment. Tonka used it on a toy and Heinzl on an alcoholic drink, both since withdrawn, and Hasbro is thinking of using it on a game.

Barbara Cassani, the brash American who runs Go, remains unfazed. She says Go reflects the simplicity and straightforwardness of the product. What's more it will fit perfectly with the marketing - as in "Go to Paris for pounds 29".

But the airline business is a cut-throat world and no more so than at the no-frills end of the market. If things don't work out for Ms Cassani, there is always Cromwell's famous exhortation to the rump Parliament: "In the name of God, Go"....