Mutterings of a third runway at Heathrow U-turn are growing louder again.
Yesterday, the FT suggested that government plans for a rail link to the airport could be a signal that the expansion is being reconsidered.
Transport secretary Justine Greening confirmed proposals for a £500m rail link from the west country, Thames Valley and Wales to Heathrow.
She has insisted that the government remains opposed to a third runway, but David Cameron has suggested that a U-turn is not out of the question (apparently).
Some MPs interested in the subject have been talking to the industry about another option.
Those who are opposed to expansion at the airport have signalled that they are willing to look again at some short-term solutions.
Currently, Heathrow use one runway for take-off and one runway for landing in the mornings and then swaps runways at 3pm to use the opposite in the afternoon.
Some believe a good compromise could be using both runways throughout the day, rather than swapping.
It's known as 'dual use' and is being trialed until March 2013 (although the idea was thought-up over a quarter of a century ago).
It would, however, increase the amount of noise pollution local residents experience and is by no means a long-term solution.
There seems to be no perfect option.
Cameron has cooled his support for 'Boris Island', approval for a third runway at Heathrow will not happen before 2015 and everything else falls short in some way.
But there is a silver lining - at least, talk of 'Heathwick' seems to have died down.
Comments
Dave Reid / July 20 2012 5:47pm
"Dual use" is a meaningless expression.
The term you are looking for is "mixed mode", which specifically means interleaving takeoffs and landings on the same runway. That's what Heathrow is trialling for the next 9 months.
And, far from being "thought up a quarter of a century ago", it's the way runways have always worked at airports that only have one ! (Gatwick, for example)