[TominScotland]

VK and Binman, I am not sure we should be re-hashing the election over again in this Forum. For starters, I am sure that all of us who live in the UK (and that is not everyone who engages here) will have made up their mind last week. It is also not really pertinent to the purpose of this site.

[VintageKrug]

Where transport policy is set or influenced by the Government, it is absolutely relevant to this site.

[TominScotland]

That is undoubtedly true, VK but lacing it with “as we welcome wholeheartedly fresh new blood into Number Ten on this most splendid of evenings” is probably what am talking about as was Binman’s “Sad day and very far from being a splendid”.

[VintageKrug]

Ah, well I put that down to the pleasure of the moment; I don’t feel it’s inappropriate having waited so long.

Best to ignore the politics if you don’t like it – and get back to discussing the matter in hand. A splendid new Airport on the Thames Estuary:

http://www.propertyinvesting.net/cgi-script/csNews/image_upload/default_2edb.thames_estuary_airport.jpg

[VintageKrug]

I think I caught something on the news about this being canned?

Boris is not happy, though, so hopefully he will be able to use his influence to resurrect this idea.

[FCTraveller]

So probably no new runway anywhere and no new airport. Typically British hey!

[VintageKrug]

Hardly British, more like the global phenomenon of the environmental lobby working its magic at Westminster.

[ConstantFlyer]

London as a conurbation is too big to rely on one airport. Imagine having to travel from Pinner to Gatwick, Wanstead to Heathrow or Kingston-upon-Thames to Stansted by car or public transport! It’d take hours! London is, in my view, better served by having a range of ‘local’ airports around its perimeter, each serving the needs and requirements of its client population in the part of London most closely connected to it. The trouble is that BAA became greedy and wanted LHR to be a hub, when it was poorly positioned to become one. If we want a hub airport in the UK for employment and economic reasons, it should be somewhere other than near London. Passengers from across the world could then easily and efficiently transit for their domestic flight to the London airport closest to where they want to be.

[NTarrant]

I’m afraid you logic is a bit skewed Constantflyer and that is not meant to be personal. You have highlighted Pinner to Gatwick, but forget that people travelling from LHR, LGW, LTN, LCY or STN don’t all live in London. As I said earlier for people like myself living on the South Coast, LGW or LHR are better options, we don’t want to go via London as it would take hours!

People don’t like changing and the tide is turning against domestic airtravel which means that an airport in the middle is a no go.

LHR has always been a hub and nothing to do with greedy BAA, it was a hub when BAA was a public sector company.

[MartynSinclair]

I still dont know why Northolt cant be expanded to take some of the pressure away from Heathrow, esepcially with the GA traffic. The new generation biz jets are far quieter now than some turbo props.

I was listening about 3 months ago to LBC when the third runway was canned. A listener recalled the time when LHR had 3 runways. I am sure that it had 4 runways at one stage. Am I correct with this or not.

[NTarrant]

Could not sayabout LHR Martyn, but certainly LGW has two, it was on a TV program sometime ago, the problem is that they are too close together and one is used as a taxi way.

[ConstantFlyer]

You’re quite right, NTarrant. I should have highlighted that the London airports serve a much wider populace. But if people used the UK’s regional airports more, then the pressure would be reduced around London. Many people from the wider provinces do fly from the London airports, but it’s generally not our first preference – especially if it means a journey across London in the rush hour.

[NTarrant]

It does depend on the regional airport and its choice of destinations. I am a 30 minute drive from SOU and I could fly from there to one of my regular destinations. But I prefer to take the train (just over the hour) from my local station to LGW. It actually works out cheaper. I prefer LGW over SOU and have a better selection of flights.

Naturally down here we avoid LTN and STN. Friends of my parents were overjoyed at saving something silly like £10 each by flying from STN as opposed to LGW, but cost them £264 return taxi to STN as opposed to £85 return to LGW!

[Author]

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