Some time back on this thread Jackonicko said:
In Greenham you had:
a huge runway, rendered surplus by the end of the Cold War, on the right side of London, yards from an existing railway line, and a sneeze away from the M4, close by a town that already needed a by-pass spur down from the M4.
....and it's just been announced that said railway line will be electrified out as far as Newbury, and that there will be lots of new rolling stock to replace the ageing diesel HST's.
Although this might appear to have been a great site for a major hub, I wonder whether it ever would have happened when you consider the establishment that lies directly under the final approach to the westerly runway?