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If that's the case, BAA don't seem to have cottoned on to it - they are still showing cycle access to Terminals 1-3 on their website:
http://www.heathrowairport.com/stati...Motorcycle.pdf
I believe it's only pedestrians that are banned from the tunnel - they can of course travel free through it on local buses.”
OK point taken, cyclists are now on the roads with the heavy traffic as their former segregated tunnels (shared with pedestrians) have now been turned over to traffic.
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Fairdeal
I don't see how without spending an ocean of public money public transport at Heathrow can be 'ultra-reliable'. Via Feltham, via Piccadilly Line, via Paddington all have their downsides. Major improvements are required but people will always have to leave a safety margin. Like everyone, I have sweated on stationary trains (not) going to the airport in various cities, it comes with the territory. Once you are committed, if something goes seriously wrong you are stuck.”
You are right,
anothertyke, we either have to attempt to emulate the best or accept that most road journeys to/from LHR will be by car.
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I do agree with you re the western rail chord though. Even one an hour to Birmingham for the next twelve years and after HS2 one an hour to Bristol would make a big difference and I have been told the timetable and layout at Heathrow allow for that. Bizarre not to have done that.”
Just trains to Reading would help, there’s a wealth of connections available there. Failing that, having
some of the West Country/South Wales long distance trains stop at Hayes would have been beneficial.
Think we can forget about HS2, this is not France. There the TGV serves the airports on “through routes” while the city bound services eventually join the "conventional" tracks to serve existing city centre stations for interchange opportunities. A couple of examples that come to mind are airport stations at CDG and LYS on the “through” lines and Paris-Lyon/Paris-Nord and Lyon-Partdieu/Lyon-Perrache for the city services.
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Could I ask you and DaveReid in particular as knowledgeable people. Suppose that Boris's Island is a non-starter and suppose that in the end the politics is just too difficult or if you prefer the next Govt is just too feeble at Heathrow. What is Plan B? Would a second runway at Gatwick and send one of the alliances there en masse, ie split the hub, be remotely conceivable?”
Thanks for the comment, think there's many more knowlegable than me on this forum!
Boris Island remains a complete non-starter and a diversion (sorry Silver!), there is no question.
The danger is that the Government
will be feeble over LHR. Plan B is probably the very unsatisfactory option: “do nothing”, and more carriers unable to acquire LHR slots at affordable rates would be off to AMS, CDG, FRA, etc.. On the other hand, that appears to be Plan A as well!
No alliance or even a single airline can be “sent” to LGW from LHR. Major UK airports are in the private sector so no one can “direct” airlines to use certain airports. Any attempts to do so would result in years of litigation.
It’s all based on commercial considerations. For any airline to leave LHR for LGW would be commercial suicide, there's not enough premium business or
sufficient connectivity at LGW.
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The only hope would be that a dual runway LGW could offer one of the networks (assuming VS are fully in Skyteam by then) a huge midfield hub to their own specifications - but even if they gave it away (say for 10 years), LHR is where they want to be, and reducing hub costs wouldn't make up for lost yield.”
Exactly, never going to happen, certainly not for VS. VS’s move from LGW to LHR in the 1980s saved it from following BUA, BCAL, Laker, etc., down the tubes. VS won’t leave LHR, and it’s not clear cut that it will join Skyteam.
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It all has to be done through consultation and through best practice design, and this is why TfL are so key. That is perhaps the lost tragedy in them going on the "Boris Island" promotion tour. We all know the island airport is a regurgitated fantasy, but instead of making LHR R3 look positively rosy in comparison, it is drawing attention away from genuine mitigation methods."
As mentioned above, major UK airports are
not publicly owned, not by central government and not by local government, also, Boris Island is well beyond TFL's geographical remit.
The ""Boris Island" promotion tour" sounds like a "jolly boy's" outing and yet another typical waste of public money.