Quote: "You are forgetting that Silver Boris still needs to serve London, so it has to be close to London."
Am forgetting nothing. Silver Island is not "close to London" (that's a description for LCY surely!). Silver Island would be further from London than Narita is from Tokyo and Incheon is from Seoul.
"But remember, the new airport has to be well-connected, but not just to the UK but also to NW Europe. This is why the Thames location is an asset, because it can then link directly to Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris (by TGV)."
You're talking about an integrated transport system. In other words, you're having a laugh! ICN has just got a rail link to Seoul after 11 years. BKK's link to Bangkok took about 3 years. Even the award-winning SIN took almost 20 years to be linked to the metro, so don't hold your breath!
By the way, who's paying for all of this? In the case of the above-mentioned new airports, it was the government. Despite Boris's bluster, is our's going to cough up for Silver Island?
Quote: "Regards linking to the rest of the UK - if Cross-Rail and HS2 do not link up with the Chunnel line and also with the Silver-Boris in the Thames Estuary, then someone needs shooting.
Seriously - these are perhaps the biggest infrastructure projects of this century, that will effect the lives of the next five or more generations, and if some stupid planner get this wrong, the entire nation will suffer for centuries afterwards. These decisions are that important. We cannot have HS2 terminating 2km from the Chunnel, and the Chunnel terminating 2km from Cross-rail, and anyone planning such a national debacle need to face the full consequences of their stupidity."
Get the firing squads ready, that is exactly what is proposed. In London, HS2 will be at Euston, HS1 is at St Pancras, and Crossrail will be about 1 mi. south, a tube ride away.
HS1 Stratford is 1 mi. from Stratford interchange, HS2 Elmdon/NEC will be 1 mi. from the existing Elmdon/NEC station.
Who knows whether HS2 will stop at Ringway or where the Manchester terminal will be, but probably not Piccadilly.
Does the use/proposed use of out of the way destinations ring any bells?
High speed rail is/will be the "Ryanair of the railways"
Quote: "The obvious position for Silver-Boris would be NW London, but that is simply no longer possible, both in terms of cost, land availability and noise disruption."
Well north or west of London certainly, not in the estuary. It cannot be In NW London obviously, but must not be so far out that it looks good to FR. The Roskill Commission (1971) suggested Cublington, Bucks, as a site for London's third airport, but that is way out.
There's a perfectly good site in Middlesex that's just 20 miles west of London and is adjacant to an existing large airport. This site already has a railway adjacant, is favoured by that airport's owner, the airlines, passengers, cargo operators, business and industry, and many who live work and make a good living in that area because of it.
Last edited by Fairdealfrank; 3rd Jun 2012 at 12:53.