General rant

[scooterscot]

Still digesting your previous post, looks pretty out of date (at least a lot of it does), where did it come from?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Estuary_Airport

[scooterscot]

Plus you'll have a seat on HS2.

£170 return "anytime" ticket price right now on fast train from Bham to London.

One hundred and Seventy quid FFS!!!

£250 is first class.

Seriously?

Last journey I took up to Berlin (from München) was about €110 1st class.

[scooterscot]

Plus you'll have a seat on HS2.

£170 return "anytime" ticket price right now on fast train from Bham to London.

One hundred and Seventy quid FFS!!!

£250 is first class.

I thought you were in jest - I can actually get you a flight to new york this week for that.

[PurpleGorilla]

General rant

As Gatwick can't operate as having two runways they only officially have one.

Same as Heathrow only having two.

It's like counting bridges across the Thames. There are lots of bridges but since some are railway bridges and don't take people on foot they don't count.

Rubbish. Gatwick officially has two runways but only operates using one at a time.

The first runway is 08R 26L

The second runway is 08L 27R

The L and R is a clue to the fact Gatwick has two runways.

So stop talking tulip about bridges and listen to someone who knows what they are talking about.

[Mordac]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Estuary_Airport

Paris "built a new main airport" but at least they had to good sense to keep the old one - Orly.
Singapore - the new main airport is still only 15 miles from the main centre.
Munich - can't comment on the old one, but the new one is pretty good, and easy to get to, in about 25 mins from the centre of Munich.
Hong Kong - looked that up on google maps, wouldn't expect to the journey from the new one to downtown in anything less than 4 or 5 hours in reasonably heavy traffic. One road in and out? Serious?
All the others you mention are small beer by comparison, so not even worth researching.
Train ticket to London price? Are you serious? A 60 mile journey to London would cost similar to the existing fare from LHR to London? And why the hell would I lug suitcases up and down platforms and staircases to get on the train? I'd want to get a cab, and for many journeys that could well be be more the flight cost.
Environmental cost - Extremely neutral, probably worse in the estuary. Especially if the new airport was bigger, therefore more env impact. Agree on that one, totally.
London Southend would have to close. Quite bloody right, if any tourist booked a flight to Southend, thinking they were anywhere near London, they would feel mightily pissed off - and rightly so.
Tunnels under the Thames, new rail links, you reckon that's within the £25bn budget? I thinkee notee...Not even f@@king almost...
It all comes down to people, how and where are you going to build an infrastructure that can handle circa 1m people, which is my estimate of how many people would be involved (having lived close to LHR for 16 yrs, and worked for some of the companies involved who would definitely have to move, inc. British Airways).
The more I look at it, the more stupid it looks...