HEATHROW

[Fairdealfrank]

Stand corrected on Cublington/Wing, but don’t think for a minute that all 4 rwys would ever have been built. Eventually, Stansted took on the role intended for Cublington/Wing and it has ……ONE rwy.




Quote: “The third and/or fourth runway for LHR is all very well to cope with increased air traffic but significant expenditure is required on the infrastructure surrounding LHR and beyond.

The route in to London would need at least an 8 lane or 10 lane motorway, further lane expansion for the M25, M4 from the west and M3 from the south west. That will mean a lot of houses will required to be knocked down to make way for all this development.”

Much of the infrastructure is already there, though clearly improvements would be necessary, such as better rail connections (some are already planned), and improved road/motorway junctions, and doubtless this would be done incrementally. An 8/10 lane M4 up to London won’t ever happen and would be pointless. There’s nowhere to channel the traffic at Chiswick/Hammersmith already with just 6 lanes.

Quote: “I think the east London Hub Airport proposal would not give the substantial benefits to the economy that an expanded LHR would.”

100% agreement!!

Quote: “The TfL paper posits two options, were a Thames hub airport to be developed. One, obviously is the closure of Heathrow, releasing the land from reuse.

The other is what TfL term "a significant reduction in size and scope" of LHR - in effect transforming it into a West London equivalent of LCY:
reduced runway length
aircraft size limit
local O&D traffic only
I don't understand how proposing either of those options constitutes "acceptance that the Thames hub scenario is "nonsense".

Very simple: for the “Thames hub scenario” to work, there has to be no Heathrow.

The two scenarios proposed for Heathrow takes no account of the views of the Shareholders of Heathrow. As a private company, these have to be taken into account ….. otherwise it’s off to the High Court.

Heathrow reduced to a “West London equivalent of LCY” would guarantee premium business the ability to fly to AMS, CDG and FRA for long haul flights (easier than going to Silver Island). This would great for AF, KL and LH, catastophic for BA and VS.

So even a cut-down Heathrow makes Silver Island unviable, but obviously TFL aren‘t going mention that are they!

Quote: “Heathrow's two runways should be extended and then cut in half to add capacity think tank says”

This one’s been reheated from a proposal from a retired pilot.

Another stumbling block would be the loss of segregated mode and rwy alternation, which is actually quite important!

Maybe try it at LGW first, they're already on mixed mode.


Quote: “I can't see why though they can't just build two more runways to the north of the airport just south of the M4 motorway parallel to the existing runways. Much of that land is flat fields anyway, perfect for runway construction and there would be less of a need to divert major roads under tunnels.

Whilst it would be awful for the people of Harmondsworth, Sipson and Harlington to lose their homes, it's not like they didn't know what they were getting into.”

Exactly, and it’s still fewer homes demolished overall, and the retention of segregated mode and rwy alternation.