Heathrow and Gatwick airports = Heathwick

From the BBC

But whilst it will make transfers easier between the two it does not increase runway capacity.

Thoughts??

We want to spend $5bn on a train that exactly how many people need to use to connect?

Dunces. More Dave Cam the Man avoiding the tough decisions :w .

I think it's a good idea. On the basis that the airports are roughly 40 miles apart, and if the estimate of the 180mph speed of the link are accurate, it'll take about 15 minutes to travel between the two. They would essentially be making LGW-N and LGW-S = LHR T6 and LHR T7.

Does highlight how bloody stupid it was to force BAA to divest LGW though...

One thing is for sure - LHR is slot constrained. Bmi have shown that internal flights in/out of LHR are completely unsustainable. Anything that can increase capacity must be welcome - and if that includes making the use of LGW more acceptable by having a high speed link between LGW and LHR so be it.

There will be a huge number of obstacles to overcome though - the opposing ownership of each airport for one, and guaranteeing reliability and performance of the link another.

Dumb idea that will never get going because of NIMBYs.

What we need are runways, one of each at STN, LHR and LGW, with a HS2 hub at LHR.

Never happen in a million years, a new rail line, through leafy home counties..come on who are they kidding...you've all seen the grief about sections of the new high speed link and that was "north of Watford"..!

Anything has to be better than a national express coach stuck in traffic on the m25

Looks good on paper, in practice not that helpful IMO. THe coach ride when traffic is decent is only 30-something minutes anyway, and that itself has never been the biggest issue for me. It's collecting your bags, lugging them across to a coach/train station, getting on and off the transport, paying for it, re-clearing main security lines etc etc. I have to say when BA used to comp the trip and move your bags for you (pre-9/11) I found the connection straightforward and doable in 2 and a bit hours, not much more than you would have allowed for a LHR-to-LHR connection with transfer from T4 to T1. Buses do seem busy, though, so I guess there is a significant pool of users for the service.

My initial reading was that this would be an open train so that if you lived in say Brighton you gould train from Brighton then change at LGW for LHR but it seams it would count as being part of the 'airside' zone so if you clear security at LGW you don't have to reclear ar LHR but I can't see that as beng practical - just look at having to be re-screened at flight connections. It might even appeal to me as I could travel from balham to LGW without the bother of going via central London.

What about people flying from an LHR only airline - would they be screened at LGW? How would they get BPs etc??

Bearing in mind what happened to the AirTrack project - which had much more backing, would have served many more people and cost barely a tenth of what is suggested for this - I really think this is absolute Pie in the Sky.

FM

I agree its pie in the sky and simply a diversion away from the real issue which is lack of runway capacity and the refusal of the current Government to even consider additional runways at LHR, LGW and STN

"mull over", "the idea".....doesn't look like a compelling business case to me...

Of course, it;s avoiding the real issue, as others have said. I can't help thinking it's more political than anything else - nice "green" rail link, "virtual hub" avoiding the necessitity to face up to building new runways etc.....

I have to say, I'm a buyer in the Boris Island concept...if it were done properly.

How big would the demand for such a link actually be - I wonder; with the reduction in domestic flights into LHR...

I've always been under the impression that HSR requires much more than 40miles to be viable. 40billion GBP for an offshore construction or 5billion GBP for a bit of rail track seems like a no brainer to me.

STN has been the source of much debate on A.net and it's often concluded that conservation, location and connectivity make it a poor choice for the UK's 'super' airport. Even expansion plans put forward a couple of years ago haven't been realised.