THE LONGEST DAY

摘要

It is seven o'clock on a dark winter morning in west London. Opposite the northern perimeter of Heathrow Airport, a stream of vehicles enter a desolate car park. Their headlights are dimmed under the street lamps' orange glow and the noise of their engines is drowned by the scream of aircraft landing nearby. The drivers park their cars and join a group of men standing dilently at a bus stop in the centre of car park N5. The bitter pre-dawn air steams their breath. Their shoulders are hunched, their hands thrust deep into the pockets of their high-visibility jackets. Occasionally, the headlights of a latecomer's car will flick across the gathering, illuminating the green T5 logos emblazoned on the men's jackets. These are some of the 5000-strong army of workers waiting to be ferried to the Terminal 5 construction site on this particular morning. Most are used to the gruelling commute, or will be by the end of the project: work on site began in November 2002 and is not due to finish until spring 2008. The same routine is being enacted in all three of the huge car parks built close to the airport by BAA for the T5 construction workers. Eventually a silver "bendy" bus pulls up at the stop; the men swipe their security passes to enter. The bus will carry the men straight to the site. For them, another day's work on the UK's largest building site is about to begin.