The Anonymous Widower

Sadiq Khan Backs Gatwick

This article on the BBC is entitled Sadiq Khan urges swift decision on Gatwick expansion.

Doesn’t most of those living and/or working in london and the South East?

This is said in the article.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has urged Theresa May to make a quick decision on airport expansion in the South East.

Mr Khan said the new Prime Minister should make the final decision on whether a new runway should be built at Gatwick or Heathrow a top priority.

This decision has been kicked further into the long grass for years, ever since Harold Wilson cancelled Maplin Airport in 1971.

With Brexit on the near hotizon, what better way to say the UK and London is open for business, than by deciding on the next runway in the South East.

I don’t believe Heathrow should build another runway for the following reasons.

• Building another runway would cause endless problems as the M25 is diverted., if what happened when it was diverted for Terminal 5 is anything to go by.
• Gatwick will have better rail connections.
• Heathrow has annoyed a lot of influential and powerful people and organisations in West London.
• The site is too small, even after demolishing the odd village.
• I don’t believe they’ll solve the pollution problem.
• I don’t like approaching the airport over Central London.
• It is the more expensive option.

You can probably say similar things for Gatwick.

But at least Gatwick’s owners don’t seem to be as greedy and uncooperative as those at Heathrow.

At least Gatwick’s plans seem well advanced, as this visualisation shows.

Gatwick With Two Runways

This appears to me to be a good efficient design.

• The new runway is on the left.
• It looks like the secondary North runway, used when the current main runway is under msaintenance, is still in place.
• Between the two runways is a massive new terminal.
• Note the station in the bottom right corner, with the Brighton Main Line going across.
• The red line is a shuttle, that takes passengers between the current North and Main terminals, the new terminal and the train station.
• Little demolition seems to have taken place.

But in some ways, where the runway is built is irrelevant, if Crossrail and the improved Thameslink work as they say on their tins.

These two high-capacity railways will give Heathrow and Gatwick a shared terminal called London, that unfortunately for them, they will share with  Stansted, Luton, HS2 and Eurostar.

I feel though, that because of Brexit, we’ll see a decision before the end of the year and possibly in the next few weeks.

British governments have fiddled for far too long!

July 15, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Crossrail, Flying, Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport, Sadiq Khan, Thameslink, Third Runway At Heathrow Airport, Trains