Vocal Voices

Is a wonderful thing...

The Government is determined to go ahead with the 3rd runway at Heathrow. Their own MP's are not happy about it, especially the London MP's, however the fun part is that certain others are in favour.

Such as the SNP and the DUP. In sufficient numbers to derail anything but a momentous Tory rebellion.

London loves to push the UK around. Nice to see turn about for a change.

I don't know if a third runway at Heathrow is a good idea or a bad idea. I do know that it will concrete over more lovely countryside, and I'm sad about that. It's progress, I suppose.

Looking at the map



It already borders housing estates and in a decade or two it would probably be built over anyway. If the Tories had any nous about this, they would have zoned it industrial, got businesses to build on it, then offered them very generous incentives to move "elsewhere".

If it is going to be concreted over anyway, I'd rather we ease the congestion on the largest/busiest International airport in the world... With the constant noise abatement regulations on jet engines, the noise pollution actually goes down. We don't have Concorde any more, we don't allow jets which are not bypass (damned noisy, just try standing around a south American local airport), things keep getting reduced over time.

You can be in Paddington in 20 minutes from Heathrow, contrast 50 minutes for Stansted, 45 minutes (best if you don't have to wait for the transfer bus), for Luton and 30 minutes from Gatwick after you have trailed to the train station which is not in the terminal.

Personally I would have preferred the new airport in the Thames Estuary favoured by Boris. This would have been the UK leading the world, doing something new, getting new opportunities. However it would have cost 5 times as much, required a whole new transport link and some environmentalists would have complained about the "stress" on the local wildlife... Funnily enough environmentalists never seem to realise that wildlife adapts faster than humans do.

Is there much countryside there? We've flown many times from Heathrow T3 and access the airport from the road which runs through Sipson down the centre of the map and it seems to be quite industrial as we drive through. I do see that there are some battlefields on the map though?

Personally I'd have preferred to see Birmingham Airport concentrated on. It's in the centre of the country, accessible from several motorways and has a mainline rail station yet it has one runway and offers quite a pitiful range of destinations compared to other airports. Basically, those of us in the Midlands who want to fly long haul are better served by Heathrow or Manchester and I know that there have been rumblings about expanding the airport and adding a second runway but I can't seem to find anything that confirms this will happen.

Jo, you really must stop talking sense, you will make our politicians' brains hurt.

Everything, infrastructure wise, has to go to London, it is so much easier for them to comprehend. So what if the other 57 million of us would rather not go there to get somewhere else - it is London, it has to be done.

Of course if it is too politically sensitive to concrete over large swathes of West London there is always "Boris Island" to consider. Yup that should do it. Bung London's new airport down the Medway and even further away from the rest of us. We can always stop off in London for a latte and a muffin on our way there. Gotta be good for London business. What's not to like?

3rd runway and HS2 would probably make that even less likely Jo. If they have any sense they will have a branch off HS2 which expresses people to Heathrow. Which would probably make it faster to fly into Heathrow and take the train into the city than flying into Birmingham.

Edinburgh is the Capitol of Scotland. Look at BA and there is only one place you can fly direct to from Edinburgh regularly (I do not count once a week on a Saturday morning as a service). England.... Very frustrating for a Scottish International commuter (which I was for more than 10 years). Hubbing through Amsterdam is just no fun at all (KLM). Even if you do know the airport extremely well. Ditto Paris (Air France), Frankfurt (Lufthansa).

Flights and Airlines in the UK are London centric. It is a fact and we need to accept it.

Suff wrote:Flights and Airlines in the UK are London centric. It is a fact and we need to accept it.

We have to do nothing of the sort.

30% of Heathrow's passengers are transit passengers. Move them to, say, Birmingham and it automatically frees up the space of 24 million people. No 3rd runway needed.

All it takes is the will to think outside the box and that, apparently, is beyond our (London centric) politicians.