Skipness said about day trips
London. That is all.
And here's us thinking that you had a broad rather than London-centric outlook
jackie
I agree in that it might not have seemed cost effective at the time of construction of the 2nd runway to build the parallel taxiway the entire length. But it would have been a great deal cheaper to have built it then at the initial construction phase rather than add it on now or in the future.
Sadly the bean counters took control of the planning. Before the move north, chatting to a number of my colleagues up in the tower, many commented that it would make their work easier if there were a taxiway to the far western end of 23L.
And how would a parallel taxiway increase capacity in current normal operations? Not one bit. And in the future? Only when the closely spaced parallel runways operational rules change, which I very much doubt will happen in the foreseeable future. So you would have invested in a taxiway which would have been used only infrequently for the last 10 years and probably will be so for at least the next 10 years with all the depreciation and maintenance costs.....
Of course it would make the TWR controllers job easier especially in the last year but do you think the business case would ever stack up for these infrequent operations? And who would pay? Answer - the airlines through charges.
Please remember that during the time the Airport was subject to stringent economic regulation by the CAA; every investment was pored over in great detail by them and the airlines and the airport was subject to a cap on its charges. Whilst the airline community were very pro the development overall, I don't remember the airlines being at all enthusiastic over this part of the plan - and even less enthusiastic about the idea of having a 3600m runway...
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NATS of course were neither for or against R2 at the Public Inquiry but merely there to assist the Inspector with technical issues........
In addition, the issue of planning permission was by no means a given with considerable local opposition and having a taxiway built that wasn't going to be used very often was just giving them more ammunition.
So whilst the layout and spacing was not ideal, at least permission was granted and has allowed the airport to increase it's capacity especially in the morning and evening peaks when it needed it most. How many other new runway projects have actually been completed in the UK in the last 30 years??
Suzeman