If You Think Railway Crossings Are Troublesome, How About an Airport Runway Crossing?
For some light summer fun. Gibraltar, as we all know is a very small colony on the bottom tip of Spain and land is at a premium. Instead of an expensive tunnel, the main road into Gibraltar crosses the main airport runway and is protected by railway style crossing gates!
To enter Gibraltar, one must cross the main runway!
Ai??
When the runway is in use, railway style barriers come down and stops traffic.
Ai??
Ai??
And when the runway is not in use, the barriers rise and the traffic proceeds normally!
wow
cool post!
Gibraltar is a Special Member State Territory of the United Kingdom and the European Union, not a British Colony; least resident of Vancouver and the Fraser Valley believe Britain is still persuing territorial gains N & S of the 44th parallel! 🙂
Zweisystem replies; Thank you for the correction. Considering the current state of affairs in BC politics one may wish that Britain would!:-)
Nothing like a few facts to change how this appears.
Until recently, Gibraltar Airport had a typical daily volume of three aircraft flights per day, and on their busy days (Mon, Wed & Fri) this increased to four flights per day. This only stopped traffic for 10-15 minutes each time and the locals were used to it, so it became just another amusing story that travellers told each other. These photos may have caught each of the three daily flights that British Airways has at Gibraltar.
With the recent agreements signed with Spain, Gibraltar Airport anticipates as many as seven flights per day, so they built a new terminal with four gates to handle the increased traffic. They also built a new tunnel under the runway which also runs under the new terminal. The former roadway across the runway will be blocked off except for emergency vehicle access to the airport tarmac.
Imagine that!
Separating road traffic into a tunnel so it doesn’t interfere with runway traffic.
(for comparison, Abbotsford Airport has more flights on a weekday morning than Gibraltar has all week)
Zweisystem replies: But you forgot to mention the many military flights per day that utilize the airport!
And you conveniently didn’t mention that either – just the photos of BA planes.
After you said “Instead of an expensive tunnel, the main road into Gibraltar crosses the main airport runway and is protected by railway style crossing gates!”
you could have included the fact that Gibraltar Airport is actually building a tunnel under the runway and their new terminal.
“To enter Gibraltar, one must cross the main runway!”
The entire Gibraltar Airport is part of Gibraltar, which is entirely south of Spain. If you’re at the terminal (north of the runway) or on The Rock (south of the runway) you are still in Gibraltar.
However, the border with Spain is just north of the terminal parking lot, so be prepared to go through customs if you want to enter ‘the frontier’
In other news, did you see this Zwei?
One opinion
http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/Islanders+ignore+fiscal+realities+they+rail+save+decrepit/3307978/story.html
and on hhe other side:
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/bc-politics/Leyne+decline+leading+highway+hell/3270058/story.html
Having worked on the Save the E&N campaign in ’78, my sympathies lie with Leyne, not Palmer.
Today Friday 23 July.
Gibraltar North Front airport
Six arrivals and six departures:
http://www.europe-airports.com/gibraltar/show-flightstats.php?code=GIB
Abbotsford sirport:
Seven arrivals and seven departures:
http://www.flightstats.com/go/Airport/airportDetails.do?airportCode=YXX
Not so very different?
Then as Zwei says the schedule for Gib excludes RAF & NATO military flights and Zwei would have to shoot me if I posted those.
Now for something different railway-wise, Switzerland to be exact;
http://www.swisstrains.ch/
Enter a Swiss city or town & watch the trains running to time, like the proverbial Swiss watch.
When your tired of that, enjoy this site:
http://www.railvideo.net/index.php?sec=72&grp=7447&ond=8792
and ride in the cab of an SBB train from Basel to Bern, Spiez, Kandersteg & Brig.
Back on-topic, when the Chilliwack to Surrey Interurban is open, a similar cab video would be wonderful publicity for the line & the Fraser Valley.