You don’t have to wait long before a story about London’s airports comes about. Today, there’s story about a protest from the people of Kent about the Mayor of London’s support for an airport in the Thames Estuary.
They protestors actually recommend the following ideas.
- A high speed rail link between Gatwick and Heathrow.
- Improved rail connections to other regional airports.
- A second runway at Gatwick after 2019.
- Development of other regional airports, like Manston and Lydd.
This I suppose is something as usually protestors are very negative.
I should say that although, I don’t do it now, I’ve flown many times over Kent in a light aircraft and it is actually surprising how much green space there is. Now, I’m not saying we concrete it all over, but how many of those who fought the Channel Tunnel Rail Link or the M2 and M20, ten or so years ago, are still fighting them. I think this shows, that if you build rail and road links sympathetically, you actually get people on your side, as they are the ones that often benefit most from the new links.
So let’s look at their proposals in turn.
1. The Gatwick to Heathrow Rail Link
Heathrow is supposed to be on a spur to the new HS2 line from London to Birmingham. But why can’t the spur go right under Heathrow and on to Gatwick? Thoughts on the subject by civil servants are here in the Telegraph.
Thinking even more radically, you might even start HS2 at some point on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and then it could encircle London to the South West with stations at Gatwick, Woking and Heathrow.
One of the great advantages of a Gatwick to Heathrow link is that you separate London bound passengers from those, who are not going to the capital or even taking a connecting flight.
2. Improved Connections to Other Regional Airports
Once we have completed Thameslink and Crossrail, a lot of this will have been established. Journeys between airports like Gatwick and Luton, Heathrow and Southend will be no changes or just one. Even Gatwick to Heathrow will only be one change at Farringdon station.
In fact, will these two modern railways, with big trains revolutionise the way people travel through London.
Imagine, you are a businessman travelling from say San Francisco to Qatar. American Airlines seems to book you via London, where you change planes. You might find after an eleven hour or more flight, that staying in a good hotel in the centre of the best city in the world is a good alternative to carrying on. After all even now Gatwick to Farringdon is just 40 mins and Heathrow to Farringdon is quoted as 30 mins on the Crossrail site, when that line opens.
So could this simple route via Farringdon, demolish the case for a high-speed rail link between Gatwick and Heathrow? It certainly will for those, who can afford to spend a night in a good London hotel or want to stay over. Farringdon is of course a short taxi ride or a one-stop train journey from most main line terminal stations.
One of the things that would make Farringdon a better interchange is some more hotels in the area. But even so, it’s not a bad location for a transport interchange. It’s also next to the wife market in Smithfield and on a more legal level from the best of London’s lawyers.
So perhaps we’ve got the CrossRail/Thameslink railways right
3. A second runway at Gatwick after 2019
I used to fly a lot and was an avid reader of Flight International. Years ago, an airline pilot proposed building a second runway at Gatwick, by building over the M23 and putting that in a tunnel underneath. The runway would have been North-South, which is an unusual direction for the UK, but would only have been used for take-off in a southerly direction.
He had a point and it shows how if you think radically, you may come up with better solutions.
But in my mind Gatwick is the place to put extra runway capacity in the South-East of England. Flights tend to avoid flying over the capital and the rail links, when they are finished will be good.
4. Development of other regional airports, like Manston and Lydd
It’s interesting to see the people of Kent wanting to take their share of the development. I suppose they understand the benefits a large airport will bring.
Manston airport could be easily connected to the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and as it has a long runway. But that’s about it. Financially, it has always been a failure, but it is there for things like maintenance and freight.
Lydd airport is one of those places that grew up after the Second World War to serve a short-hop-to-France market. It does a bit more now, but would not be an airport of my choice.
However saying that about Lydd, over the previous few months, Southend airport has been developed from a small field to a proper airport, with easyJet as an operator. It has a rail link to Liverpool Street station in London, which takes about 50 minutes. But Southend has quite a large catchment area including East London, Chelmsford, Colchester and Ipswich, with good rail and road links. To a certain extent, it will take business from Stansted.
In fact you can now see a pattern developing of London’s airports. The two big ones; Heathrow and Gatwick are badly placed and you wouldn’t put them there now, but remember, the capacity will rise as more and more airlines use larger and larger aircraft at these airports. I can see a time, when these airports completely ban 737’s and the like. I’ve just found, that you can fly Heathrow to Paris in a small Airbus 319. Surely, we need to improve the rail links, so more passengers take the train.
Around these two large airports, a ring of smaller ones is developing.
- Stansted, which is big enough to take long-haul, is still considered a low-cost airline airport
- Luton, which is very much a low-cost airline and charter airport
- City, which is an ideally placed short-haul business airport
- Southend, which is developing into another low-cost airline airport
What is missing, is a low-cost airline airport, or even a business airport like City to the west, with good quick connections to Heathrow. A third shorter runway at Heathrow might have worked for the latter.
I think though on balance, that we shouldn’t take any serious decisions about expanding Heathrow or replacing it with an airport in the Thames Estuary, until CrossRail and Thameslink are fulkly operational and the plans for HS2 are finalised.
May 12, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
News, Transport/Travel | Airports, Crossrail, Flying, Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport, High Speed Two, King's Cross Station, St. Pancras Station, Trains |
3 Comments
I’ve had two endoscopies to check on my coeliac disease. Neither was any problem and both were done without any sedative at all, as the first doctor explained, this was better in a lot of ways. In both cases I was able to walk out the hospital and drive myself home.
Every time though, I see a picture of Mrs. Brooks, she reminds me of the doctor, who performed the second procedure. It’s the hair mainly, although both are probably about the same height and build. But that’s probably as far as it goes.
I certainly know, who I would prefer to perform an endoscopy.
May 12, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
Health, News | Coeliac/Gluten-Free, Endoscopy, Newspaper |
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Pioz in Guadalajara has just 3,000 inhabitants, but the village has run up debts of €16,000,000 and at the current repayment rate will take over 7,000 years to pay the debts back. It all stems from a previous administration that built an elaborate water purification plant.
And then there was the €150,000,000 airport at Castellon near Valencia, which never attracted a single aircraft.
No wonder Spain and Spanish banks are in trouble!
May 12, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
Finance & Investment, News | Banks, Spain |
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This post was brought about by Danny Baker asking on Radio 5, if anybody had any stories about getting into football matches.
The spring after C died, I took a holiday in Italy, mainly to see if I could holiday by myself.
Whilst staying in Florence, I found out that Fiorentina were playing a home game against Livorno.
It was a bit of a performance to get the ticket, as I had to go to the cafe, opposite the ground and buy it from the owner. To do this, I needed a credit card and my passport. The latter was duly copied before the ticket was issued.
Before the match, I decided that it would be best just to take a few euros and the ticket, as I wasn’t sure, if Italian football crowds had the odd pickpocket.
When I approached the gate to get into the ground, I was approached and frisked by a steward, who demanded my passport.
As I didn’t fancy the long walk back to the hotel, I protested and finally decided to point to the badge on the Ipswich bobble-hat I was wearing, saying Inglesi repeatedly and loud at the time.
He forgot about the passport and I was let through.
May 12, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
Sport, World | Football, Italy, Radio |
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That effectively means it’s all over, as you never argue with a bookie’s judgement. Read about it here.
May 12, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
News | Europe, Gambling, Greece |
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I took this picture tonight, on the mezzanine floor between the escalators at St.Paul’s Tube Station.
A Busker with a Celtic Harp
I would have thought that usually those playing a harp, were well above the cathedral, rather than underneath it!
I hope I got the type of harp right!
May 11, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Cathedral, London Underground, Music |
8 Comments
I’ve only seem it on one bus on route 21, so it might be unique.
Congratulations Your Majesty
Although, I have seen it several times, before I got this picture at Newington Green. In some ways to photograph it there is appropriate, as that is the area of London, where the non-comformists based themselves in the seventeenth century. It has a long connection with Mary Wollstonecraft. It is a place well worth a visit, as it has a nice garden and some buildings worth a look.
May 11, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
News, Transport/Travel | Advertising, Buses, Diamond Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth |
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The tragic fire in Derby, where five children died, was one of those incidents, where I thought there was a lot more to the story than initial reports, led us to believe.
It now appears that the father had had seventeen children by six different women and that a woman in her late twenties has been arrested for starting the fire. The father has also appeared on the Jeremy Kyle Show, which probably adds even more to the story.
A lot of C’s work as a barrister, concerned sorting out families like this one. Usually, at the centre of her cases was a woman, who couldn’t say no! She would often act for the Council to get the children taken in to care.
So what is the difference here?
The state this family lived in wasn’t good, so why weren’t some of these children taken into care and fostered? I have known of families with ten or more children that were well run and the children were well looked after, but usually in these cases, both parents were model ones.
So what were Derby Social Services doing?
It would appear very little in a constructive manner! Otherwise this tragedy wouldn’t have happened.
May 11, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
News | Death, Fire |
2 Comments
Whether this is because of the move to Manchester, I do not know, but BBC Breakfast isn’t the program it was when it was in London. Obviously, the move cost it two of its best presenters; Sian Williams and Chris Hollins, but the rapport and banter between the presenters seems to have gone too.
I think too, that the regular guests, like Dr. Rosemary Leonard, have not been replaced with others of the of the same quality. I know that it’s early days yet, but some have been absolutely dire, when talking about serious subjects.
And then there are many more segments about pop music and people struggling with horrendous injuries. Today, there was only three serious stories. One about plastic bottle recycling, another about MOT bias and another about goal-line technology.
The sooner the program returns to its natural home in London, the better. Incidentally, one of the stories on BBC London; about children in care in Hackney and how long it takes them to be settled, should have been covered nationally.
But what illustrates the dumbing down and lack of quality most, is the story about the grooming of young girls in Rochdale. That didn’t get much coverage at all in the last few days. Why not?
And what is the phone-in on Radio 5 about this morning? Celebrities!
May 11, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
News | BBC, Celebrity, Entertainment, Manchester |
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The Olympic Torch Relay has a rather good interactive map, which you can find by clicking here.
Just type in your postcode or town and set to full screen and then go round the map.
It actually passes the end of my road, by Dalston Junction station, probably just after 16:00 on Saturday, July 21st.
I have checked other places, which have significance for me, to see how near the torch goes.
It actually goes past Southgate Tube station, next to where I went to school at Minchenden. In fact it goes past the pub, where we used to drink, The Woolpack (July 25th)
It goes past Wood Green station, which I used to use regularly to get to my father’s printing works. (July 25th)
It goes all around Ipswich town centre and past where the Golden Panda used to be. (July 5th)
May 10, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
Sport | Minchenden Grammar School, Olympic Torch Relay, Olympics |
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The Anonymous Widower 