Creating Heathwick
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 919
Likes: 13
From: MCT
Smacks of desperation from The Chambers of Commerce to me - and my guess is that DfT have floated it just to let it get shot down.
It's absolute nonsense of course - a mainly underground high speed line is going to cost how much? Where is the money to come from? How long will it take to build even if it did get planning permission? And what will it achieve? B*gger all I would suggest
It will of course only take 15 mins to make the journey - but if you are transferring, you have to get off the plane, get to the rail point, wait for a train, get to the other airport and transit through to your gate. Total gate to gate time much longer.
And it doesn't increase the runway capacity, so what's the point? The opportunity for the UK to retain its pre-eminent role in World Aviation has gone now due to Government dilly-dallying for the last few decades.
Other countries and airlines have spotted the opportunity and grabbed it.
The only thing this idea is likely to do is decrease the capacity of the London TMA due to the increased numbers of pies and pigs flying around until it is ruled out.
Suzeman
It's absolute nonsense of course - a mainly underground high speed line is going to cost how much? Where is the money to come from? How long will it take to build even if it did get planning permission? And what will it achieve? B*gger all I would suggest
It will of course only take 15 mins to make the journey - but if you are transferring, you have to get off the plane, get to the rail point, wait for a train, get to the other airport and transit through to your gate. Total gate to gate time much longer.
And it doesn't increase the runway capacity, so what's the point? The opportunity for the UK to retain its pre-eminent role in World Aviation has gone now due to Government dilly-dallying for the last few decades.
Other countries and airlines have spotted the opportunity and grabbed it.The only thing this idea is likely to do is decrease the capacity of the London TMA due to the increased numbers of pies and pigs flying around until it is ruled out.
Suzeman
Thread Starter
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 3,052
Likes: 0
From: In transit
October 10, 2011
Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group, has poured cold water on a plan to link London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports by high-speed train.
The British government said on Saturday that it was considering connecting the airports -- creating a virtual hub dubbed Heathwick -- to increase capacity in the London aviation market after it rejected a third runway at Heathrow.
"The challenges (Heathwick) faces are very significant," Walsh told the Sunday Telegraph. "I don't know how long it would take to develop. I don't know how much it would cost."
Walsh said he believed that shelving the plan for a third runway at Heathrow, which would have been funded by the airlines using the airport, would be viewed in future years as a "huge mistake".
The Heathwick scheme, which was reported by the Financial Times to cost GBP£5 billion, would be included in the Government's review of aviation policy in spring 2012, a Department for Transport spokesman said on Saturday.
Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group, has poured cold water on a plan to link London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports by high-speed train.
The British government said on Saturday that it was considering connecting the airports -- creating a virtual hub dubbed Heathwick -- to increase capacity in the London aviation market after it rejected a third runway at Heathrow.
"The challenges (Heathwick) faces are very significant," Walsh told the Sunday Telegraph. "I don't know how long it would take to develop. I don't know how much it would cost."
Walsh said he believed that shelving the plan for a third runway at Heathrow, which would have been funded by the airlines using the airport, would be viewed in future years as a "huge mistake".
The Heathwick scheme, which was reported by the Financial Times to cost GBP£5 billion, would be included in the Government's review of aviation policy in spring 2012, a Department for Transport spokesman said on Saturday.
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 507
Likes: 0
From: Cornwall UK
Market forces vs. 'The Plan'
Are there not parallels to be drawn between shortage of runways (Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted) and the subsequent selling of slots and WWII Rationing and the subsequent black market? (Same thinking applies to planning laws and the collapse of new house building in the UK causing building land overpricing and corruption in getting planning permissions).
What would be the result if the 3 London airports were given an extra runway each?
What would be the result if the 3 London airports were given an extra runway each?
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 514
Likes: 41
From: Oil Capital of Central Scotland
I have to agree with AttNots in this instance.
From a Geographic, Strategic and (Human) Environmental point of view, it is absolutlely crazy to continue to try cram the majority of flights and business into the already overcrowded southeast corner of the country.
It makes too tempting a target for a terrorist organisation to continue to concentrate everything in the south east corner.
Should, God Forbid, that we ever go to a "formal" war again, bomb this area & you could cripple the country.
If you are unfortunate enough to have to work in this area, I doubt that you can have a high quality of life.
More importantly, in these cash strapped times, I seriously object to any proposal by someone that the government should use some or all of the tax from my hard earned wages to build something that will ultimately benefit one or more foreign private companies.
As an island and a nation, we need to seriously look at diversifying and decentralising where our industry, population and transport links are. There is a balance to be struck between centralisation and de-centralisation & I firmly believe we are at serious risk of irreversible damage to our health & sustainanbility as a nation if we continue with this unhealthy obsession with piling everything into & around the M25 parking lot.
We need to look at better use of the facilities we have nationally and use them more efficiently, looking to expand, gradually and controllably, away from the south east moving gradually out to include Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Dundee, Aberdeen & finally Inverness. As has been pointed out in previous posts, to do this we need to put the other supporting infrastructure in place beforehand.
Heathwick Island, Boris' Gatrow and associated surface or subterranean rail links are and should remain non-starters.
From a Geographic, Strategic and (Human) Environmental point of view, it is absolutlely crazy to continue to try cram the majority of flights and business into the already overcrowded southeast corner of the country.
It makes too tempting a target for a terrorist organisation to continue to concentrate everything in the south east corner.
Should, God Forbid, that we ever go to a "formal" war again, bomb this area & you could cripple the country.
If you are unfortunate enough to have to work in this area, I doubt that you can have a high quality of life.
More importantly, in these cash strapped times, I seriously object to any proposal by someone that the government should use some or all of the tax from my hard earned wages to build something that will ultimately benefit one or more foreign private companies.
As an island and a nation, we need to seriously look at diversifying and decentralising where our industry, population and transport links are. There is a balance to be struck between centralisation and de-centralisation & I firmly believe we are at serious risk of irreversible damage to our health & sustainanbility as a nation if we continue with this unhealthy obsession with piling everything into & around the M25 parking lot.
We need to look at better use of the facilities we have nationally and use them more efficiently, looking to expand, gradually and controllably, away from the south east moving gradually out to include Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Dundee, Aberdeen & finally Inverness. As has been pointed out in previous posts, to do this we need to put the other supporting infrastructure in place beforehand.
Heathwick Island, Boris' Gatrow and associated surface or subterranean rail links are and should remain non-starters.
