Boris and Heathrow’s third runway

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has warned that he believes building a third runway at Heathrow would result in over 25m extra road journeys that would cause colossal levels of congestion alongside significant overcrowding on trains serving the airport.  His comments are even more interesting now that he has stated he would not stand for a third term in 2016.

In a report to the Airports Commission his team say that local roads and motorways to the west of London would struggle to accommodate the estimated extra journeys a third runway would generate.  The M4 and western sections of the M25 would need at least one extra lane in both directions.

The Mayor’s chief aviation advisor, Daniel Moylan, said: "If Heathrow is chosen for major expansion, that will mean it will be Britain's hub airport for several generations to come and a fourth runway will follow the third as night follows day.  As TfL's analysis shows, even a third runway would greatly exacerbate the immense pressures on local roads and rail and would require vast public expenditure just to keep the area around Heathrow at current levels of congestion.  When all this is taken into account, the difference in cost between a four-runway Heathrow and an entirely new airport starts to dwindle”.  www.newairportforlondon.com

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