Originally Posted by
Jenbel
I fully accept it's hard to get out of LHR from outside of London. Lord knows, I used to do it - i had a choice of driving all the way or driving 20 miles to work, leaving my car there, getting a taxi to the station (about 30 mins), getting on a 2.5 hour train to KX and then going Picadilly line or tube to Paddington and Hex. I used to train more than I drove. So please spare me your tales of woe about how hard it is to get to LHR by public transport - my travel time was 4-5 hours (down the M1 and M25 (or M40)) by car or about 5 hours by train, so I've been there, done that and I've got the t-shirt. And I survived it.
But it's strange, if I drove, I wouldn't have been hit by this charge. Why not? I wasn't dropping myself off... I'd park the car there for however long I was away for. And a lot of people coming to LHR from long distance, they won't either... they'll be parking their cars there too as well. All those cars parked around the boundary have to come from somewhere
As a guess, I'd say if it takes you more than 1.5-2 hours to drive one way to LHR, you're more likely to park than to be dropped off...
But how inconvenient... parking isn't free
Don't they realise that people have to come from places to LHR for which there are no easy public transport options?! Where were you guys all campaigning so I could get free parking for my travels?
Sorry, there are many ways we have to pay for using airports... many of them are unfair and penalise people unfairly - particularly when based upon the distance we live from the airport. After all if I used public transport, I had to pay about £140 for the privilege, compared to £6 for someone going by tube, or sometimes, on an early flight pay for an overnight hotel
Should I get those free too because LHR is inconvenient for me?
(And as a further thing.. I don't think I suggested that those of you with children (and others!) had a choice about which airport you fly from. I said you had a choice... fly or not fly. Afterall, the first time I flew on holiday was when I was about 15 - although I had been abroad once before that, when we went by ferry. Holidaying in the UK for the first 14 years of my life doesn't seem to have done me much harm - I'd prefer no comments on that one
)
I never drive to LHR, I either drive to and park at MAN and fly, or get dropped off -2 hours each way from Birmingham. I don't think it's a fair proposal for so many reasons.
I think the point about 'go or not go by plane' is not really viable in the 21st century. If BAA put the £20 into a carbon offset scheme then I might just swallow it, although I think £20 is excessive, but just to take it into vague 'green' schemes isn't on. As for the Congestion Charge etc. we need to be careful of road pricing -all of us already pay tax on every mile we drive if we buy petrol or diesel.
You are being deliberately argumentative
over the 'free hotel' idea.
What differentiation does the scheme make over whether the car is hybrid or an S600 merc? The flat fee is clearly not designed for climate change -as another poster argues, the point is perhaps not the intention but the result and I agree to an extent.
Clearly, my argument is flawed as I am totally out of order obviously to believe that £20 is excessive to be dropped off at LHR. People will just get dropped off at Hatton Cross roundabout and walk/get the tube -ok I'll do that, but surely that will increase traffic as that isn't a designated drop off point, it will increase traffic accidents and put people at increased risk, as well as increasing pollution overall because of the congestion. Yes, some people will pay and people don't want to walk from Hatton Cross -but you get my point. I don't have a choice but go away on business, but it's just another economically harming measure -I may as well go LH. We already have a government doing a very good job of economic suicide, so please don't encourage BAA to do the same......