h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: London Heathrow Airport (LHR) - A4134881
Author: Deano - Back the Bid at london2012.com - U211726

Although Ben has done an interesting article on Things to Do If You Get Stuck at Heathrow, there is definitely a gap in the Guide for something about the development of Heathrow. The airport is of paramount importance to the UK, especially to the SE and the Thames Valley.

Incidentally, the link to 'BAA Heathrow - Terminal 5' is to a blank page - I haven't got round to writing that one yet!!!

Wow - jolly good!

Only had time for a skim, but:

>>As Margaret Thatcher's continued<< A 'government' missing in there?

Wow, getting stuck at Heathrow... had an awful experience with that one.

Deano, you can only link to entries that have been Edited. So linking to your entry on Terminal 5 is, unfortunately, not on - until it gets into the Edited Guide! - but Ben's entry is ok to link to.

I can't think of anything else you need to add!

"25% of Heathrow's passengers arrive by rail, and another 15% by bus or coach. Increases in recent years have put the airport well on track to reach its long term objective of 50% of all passengers arriving by public transport."

Do taxis not come under 'public transport'?

Taxis - hmmm.

Tube fare from central London to LHR - about £5
Taxi fare to cover similar distance, starting at LHR - £40
Taxi fare to cover much shorter distance, starting at LHR - £40
Taxi fare to go from LHR to just round the corner - £40

Bit of a scam going on with the taxis at Heathrow: tired travellers arriving in London for the first time, missing the not terribly loudly signalled directions to train and tube, stagger out to the taxi rank and find that it's £40 no matter how short your journey is.
(As I found to my cost a few years ago, when I ended up having to perform a complex bus-train shuffle around dawn which took a couple of hours but cost about £3)

I have now found a local taxi firm which undercuts the black cab sharks by at least 50% - but isn't allowed to hang around for trade at Heathrow itself; you have to ring and arrange it. Funny that.

Ok can i just say something like "more on T5 in another entry" or word to that effect? cos I don't really want to put Terminal 5 into this one - there's too much to write about...

also, i'm not sure about the taxi figure, but I presume that whoever comes up with the statistics didn't include taxis - presumably because the vast majority arriving at Heathrow at private hire, and therefore do not count as public transport... either that or by public transport it implies "mass transport".

I actually meant to say "Margaret Thatcher" one its own - I am sceptical of how much say her "government" had it her decisions!

Nice one

I'll try and have a detailed read later on and see if I can pick up any typos or make any particular constructive criticism.

<>

I don't know that that will work very well. What I would suggest is saying something like 'Terminal 5 will not be discussed in detail here; suffice to say that...' and go on with whatever it suffices to say.

Or, if you are definitely going to write the Terminal 5 entry, leave it as it is and then when that entry gets into the edited guide you can ask the mods to put the link in for you. Provided the Terminal 5 entry happens pretty quickly, mind you.

ok noted... I'm contemplating just whacking the whole T5 thing in here... what do you think?

Nice one, Deano. As I said at the time, I really like it.

One thing which might be possible is to put all the T5 stuff in here, and for the sub to split it into two linked entries when it's picked?

Would that work, boys and girls? I am too far from the EG these days to know if it would.

Ben

yeah that'd be the best solution methinks... although either way i don't think i'm gonna get round to it for a while - i've got 11 A/S exams in the next 2 weeks!!!

i'll probably get bored with revision though, so i'm sure you'll see it miraculously appear from cyber-space sometime in the next few weeks!

Deano

Well, with the 'xams

Exactly

The stuff about the Underground is effectively duplicated within the entry, so one of the references would seem to need to be removed and its content combined with the other.

The only major problem with this entry is that a lot of it is very time-sensitive, i.e. it's going to be out of date within a year or two.

We have a recommendation from a Scout for this very good entry, but we're just waiting to see when it's definitely finished. Just let us know if you need a little more time or not, so we can either free up the Scout or accept the recommendation.

I think this is an excellent entry - terrific! The discussion regarding the A380 and the future of LHR is very informative. 6 or 7 terminals - good gracious! Thumbs up!

OK, I am going to seem like a real spoilsport here, but the last paragraph is a bit puerile, to be quite honest. Mention of a bomb in any airport is a really serious matter, and plenty of people have found themselves at the wrong side of the law and in serious trouble for what they thought were innocuous jokes. I also think it is factually incorrect that anybody would find themselves in Guantanamo for a bomb joke in an airport, even in the US. However, they would find themselves in big trouble; and a jail sentence along with a permanent ban on travel to the US is definitely a possibility. I know this sentence was meant as a joke, but in the light of the great factual stuff already in this entry, the attempt at humour didn't work for me.

thanks for the compliments - at some point soon I will finish the bit about T5, and i'll let you know when that's done.

sorry if you didn't like the joke... obviously in light of recent event I would have changed it anyway.

I may have come across as a bit of an old grump (sorry) - its probably also because of what's just happened that made me react to it this way. It shouldn't take away from your entry overall though, which is one of the better ones I have read here.

Excelent entry It seems very well researched. Definitely can be in the guide.