I couldn't agree more with the posts of Glass Half Empty, MrBenoulli, PAXboy & 411A. LHR is a complete disaster in just about every respect. I have to commute through LHR approx. once every two months or so & it's a total, complete & utter nightmare. I work alongside various nationalities who also commute great distances & each & every one of them now avoids LHR at all costs in favour of FRA, AMS, CDG etc., etc. If the current shambles of draconian, understaffed & dim witted security measures continue then there will have been no need to build T5 as there won't be enough customers left to warrant its construction. It's also a massive rip off: from car parking charges, to eating, to the 'official' taxis that operate its ranks. I was charged £60 in April for a 6 mile journey after being guided to the rank by an airport official!!
The legalised robber said that he had to charge such an extortionate amount because it was the morning rush hour & it would take him such a long time to get his position back. That same analogy is true of many other airport taxi systems around the world but it just happens to be only at LHR where such daylight robbery has happened to me.
Heathrow is suffering from UK Government 'politcally correct' & BAA cheapskate policy. You have to be seen to be doing something with regards to security measures so impose riduculous, ineffective "how can we piss off the customers most" technique. Within its citizenship the United Kingdom contains some of the finest security brains in the world with decades of intelligence gathering, counter intelligence & military experience. They could run the security far more effectively & efficiently, thereby keeping us all safer & far less hassled, than the current in-breds running & working at LHR & just about every other British airport. Why aren't they there? Put quite simply it would be an expense that the BAA is not prepared to pay for. That's how much the Government & the BAA care about our safety: it has a price limit on it.
T5 was definitely needed to cope with the projected rise in traffic at the airport but those projections may yet be proved to be flawed enough to warrant it as yet another massive waste of money. Will somebody in authority please listen to the real experts, i.e., the passengers & staff who have to deal with this hell hole of an airport regularly & not whisked through via The Hounslow Suite. If something isn't done to alleviate the chaos that ensues every damn time that you set foot in the place it will lose insurmountable ground to its near European neighbours as a world wide hub.