Comments on: Birmingham Airport proposes itself as solution to proposed Heathrow 3rd Runway

By: Jiminy Cricket

Jiminy Cricket — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:29:33 +0000

This Lyneham proposal has been around longer than I guessed – since 1989, in fact. Here’s an extract from Jane’s Airports, Equipment and Services, published in June 2003:

“In 1989, the House of Commons Select Committee raised the idea of joint military/civil airports in the UK. At that time, the committee identified five airfields within a 60-mile radius of London which were under utilised. Two of these were Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and Lyneham in Wiltshire …. Surely, the UK government should be looking at the possibility of utilising these existing facilities and building the infrastructure necessary to provide the airport capacity which is required in the South East.”

Since my original post, I’ve seen the latest cost estimate for the Heathrow third runway, which is £8 billion. That, no doubt, would double in reality, but even £8bn would surely pay for upgrading Lyneham to major passenger airport standard AND providing a new Paddington-Heathrow-Lyneham-Bristol high speed railway (or, more likely, upgrading the existing line, which like the M4 passes within a couple of miles of Lyneham).

By: Jacaranda

Jacaranda — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:19:23 +0000

It’s good to see all this interest, so I sent a link to the MP who covers Lyneham, James Gray, who replied as follows: “It may not surprise you to hear that I – and I am pretty certain 99% of those I represent – would be wholly opposed to re-using Lyneham as the third Heathrow runway. Anyhow, as I understand it, it would not be allowed by the CAA because of the delineation of the runways and the Lyneham escarpment.”
Not too surprising, I suppose – there are no votes in airports – but does anyone know if the lie of the land around Lyneham would really rule it out? It always seems pretty flat around there to me, especially compared with some of the airports I’ve flown in to.

By: Holidays from Birmingham Airport

Holidays from Birmingham Airport — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:40:19 +0000

I didn’t realise the amount of people within a 2 hour drive, that’s a huge amount of people

By: Jacaranda

Jacaranda — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:46:40 +0000

Just done a bit more research and I see the 3rd Heathrow runway proposal is for a runway of 2,200 metres. Lyneham has two runways, of 2,386m and 1,826m. So technically better and much more flexible (not to mention already built). But Heathrow operator BAA is now reported to have given up on the 3rd runway (because the Conservatives oppose it and are likely to win the next election; how much money has that wasted?) and is pushing instead for a 6-runway airport on the Thames estuary. This is turning into a farce!

By: Jacaranda

Jacaranda — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:24:45 +0000

Turning Lyneham into a civilian airport linked by high speed train is a great idea because it would do far more for air travellers in the south of England than a 3rd Heathrow runway and create new jobs in the area instead of destroying them (which the Lyneham closure will do). And in green terms, it’s far better to make more use of an existing facility than to spend billions on tearing down houses and replacing with runways. Heathrow is already the world’s most disliked airport. Cramming more into it will just make it worse. However, Jiminy Cricket is jumping the gun a bit as Lyneham is scheduled to close as an RAF base in 2012, not next year.

By: tomkerswill

tomkerswill — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:52:36 +0000

High speed rail links to Birmingham airport (and to a new terminal at RAF Lyneham as Jiminiy Cricket suggests) would be great – especially for people not based in London in the first place. Heathrow’s enough of a nightmare to get through as it is!

By: Jiminy Cricket

Jiminy Cricket — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:11:35 +0000

An even better idea would be to use RAF Lyneham, which lies close to the M4 and main Paddington-Bristol railway. It is due to be closed next year and only needs a terminal, car parking, station and motorway link to be ready to take all Heathrow’s domestic and short-haul flights, at a fraction of the cost of the 3rd runway.
A high speed rail link (part of a London-Cardiff high speed line) could get passengers to and from Heathrow in 30 minutes and also bring them from Bristol and Cardiff.
Lyneham could serve the whole M4 corridor including Swindon, Reading, Chippenham, Bath and Bristol, as well as handling Heathrow’s local flights.