Heathrow Hub have said their proposal to the Airports Commission will reduce the noise footprint and produce the best result in terms of growing passenger public transport use.
Their proposal would involve extending the existing Northern Runway to allow two aircraft to take off or land simultaneously rather than building a new one.
They have made some additional submissions to the Airports Commission prior to the deadline and issued a comment on them.
Jock Lowe Heathrow Hub director, said: “Our concept best meets the Airports Commission’s requirement to enhance the UK’s hub airport capacity. We tackle the issue of noise head on by drawing on measures employed internationally and by also proposing an end to night quota flights arriving before 6am. Our scheme is the simplest to implement and finance; it delivers the greatest economic benefits to Britain; and by connecting the airport to the national rail network we would make it easier to get to for people across the entire UK.No other infrastructure project can do so much for the entire country. The question now has to be, why not do it?”
They say their revised documents show that their proposal would reduce the number of people on the noise footprint by 300,000. “Our recent submission on noise has been revised and then modelled by the Civil Aviation Authority’s noise
team,” says the submission. “New indicative flight paths, similar to those used by Heathrow Airport Ltd in their proposal have been modelled. The result is a dramatic reduction in the population impacted by aircraft noise. For example, according to the CAA modelling and using the Commission’s assumptions, the 2040 population inside the 55db Lden footprint falls by more than 300,000 when compared to today (even assuming population growth) and is approximately 15% lower than the equivalent (Heathrow Airport) figure.”
Heathrow Hub make much of their proposed rail connections – a key feature of which is the proposed rail interchange with the West Coast Mainline. Introducing the Heathrow Hub railway interchange would, they say, maximise the passenger shift on to public transport, meaningfully reducing air pollution and road traffic congestion.
