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Old October 12th 11, 02:36 PM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london
Ken Wilshire[_2_] Ken Wilshire[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Oct 2010
Posts: 5
Default "Heathrow and Gatwick airports: Ministers mull rail link" (twixtthe two)

On 9 Oct, 16:52, Chris Sanderson wrote:
I had a good laugh when i first heard this suggested, but perhaps
there's another way to look at it....

The BML needs relieving with a lengthy tunnel being suggested,
dedicated services to both Heathrow and Gatwick are under threat of
being at least partially absorbed into Crossrail/Southern services,
and the cancellation of Airtrack continues to leave Heathrow without
rail access from the South.

Throwing caution to the wind, might a high capacity 'Thameslink2/
Airport Express' from Brighton/Gatwick to Stansted (or elsewhere north
of London) via a SWML interchange (Surbiton?), Heathrow and Central
London be a [slightly] more practical idea?

Chris


On Airtrack, I really don't understand why they didn't just commission
the rail link from Heathrow Terminals to Staines - and forget about
the problems caused by increased through trains. Then I could catch a
train and change at Clapham Junction - like the vast majority of
people in the south / south west / south east can, and then at Staines
your change takes you right to the terminal. No different than
catching the mini shuttle at terminal 5 if you arrive by road, or
changing at Heathrow Central at the moment.

Oh, I know capacity problems - which then completes the circle, and
agrees with the arguement that the whole thing should have already be
built in the first place...

Ken