The mayor Boris Johnson came up with a plan to replace Heathrow airport, despite the millions of pounds spent on it in recent years, with an artificial island east of London.
Passengers would have their luggage checked in at a train station in central London, and from there they would take a high speed train to the Island. He also hopes that the new airport would solve the congestion problems in Heathrow, and would create many new jobs. Boris Johnson says that it could be up and running within the next six years. He said “If you look at what is going on in other countries around the world, in Hong Kong, in Washington – it’s not impossible to move the capital’s biggest airport.”
Since the 1960s, 13 major cities including Paris, Milan and New York have moved their airports further out. In Hong Kong, the government spent six years and $20 billion building an airport on an artificial island and linking it by bullet train to the city, very similar to the Boris Island idea.
However, this is not a new idea as a proposal for an airport in the Thames has been around for nearly 40 years.
He also said “What we don’t want to do is entrench a planning error of the 1960s by further expansion at Heathrow. We should look at whether there’s a solution to the east, in the Thames estuary.”
This idea has caused a lot of controvercy among politicians and citizens, people who live near Heathrow are thrilled with the idea, and the thought of a third runway and a sixth terminal would destroy their area and would cause a huge amount of pollution.
It has been said by Gordon Brown that he would make an announcement on the matter before christmas.
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