You insist on using the £18bn figure and completely refuse to acknowledge the fact that this investment is needed anyway.
There are lots of far better-value essential projects spread around regional UK which also desperately need investment anyway. But they aren't seeing state-funding any time soon. Neither should this project until others have had a long-overdue opportunity to play catch-up. Do you ever stop to consider just how much money £18 Billion actually is? We've never had a £2 Billion state-funded infrastructure project in the North. Not even close. The SE must be well into double figures of such projects already delivered. Even the 'upgrade' of the Northern Line is costing £10Bn, never mind new-build projects. And that's the only 'Northern' project that has seen big league funding so far!
The country gets a world class hub airport which WILL benefit the whole of the UK
But those (underwhelming) benefits won't come remotely close to justifying the cost of providing it. Particularly for those regional communities urged to rely on mythical 'trickledown'.
all the taxpayer has to do is pay for the access
Just a snip at £18,000,000,000. Bargain!
It is a good deal and should have been given the go ahead long ago.
Wow, your posting has taken 36 days to appear on here. You did write it on April 1st, didn't you?
LGW is not going to become a hub, building a new runway at LGW will not change anything regards to a LHR hub
But London doesn't
need additional hub capacity. It needs capacity to serve growth driven by the indigenous SE travel market, and that is primarily leisure-driven. That can be addressed perfectly well by expanding runway capacity at LGW. The bulk of air passenger growth in the SE is accounted for by the surge in demand for the LCC no-frills short haul leisure product. That is a fact. Niche business routes to the likes of Brazil and China are a vastly smaller market, and these few services (where economically justified) can easily be accommodated at LHR by swapping out afew pairs of short-haul slots (as so frequently happens in reality).
Which ever way I look at it paying only for the access improvements THAT NEED UPGRADING ANYWAY is a bargain for the taxpayer.
But how much more of a bargain for the taxpayer to fund all those long-neglected regional infrastructure priorities THAT ALSO NEED UPGRADING ANYWAY. And have been waiting half-a-century or more for their turn with state funding. And most of which will likely be kept waiting at least as long again. It's not OK for the South-East to gorge all of the cake all of the time. The presumptuous sense of entitlement we observe from some down there is nauseating.