Opinion
Institute of Directors
Changing the route of the southern end of HS2 after so much work has already been done may seem like an admission of failure. But in reality, it is key to making both high speed rail and aviation a success believes Corin Taylor
I
n a famous Yes Minister episode, the unfortunate Jim Hacker is offered the title of Transport Supremo and told to introduce an integrated transport policy. After his first fruitless meeting with the heads of the rail, road and air divisions of the transport department, Hacker spends the rest of the episode desperately trying to avoid his new responsibilities. Before too long, the integrated transport policy is dumped, the minister returns to administrative affairs, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
Thirty years on, deep breaths are still being taken, with
Transport Secretaries coming and going at the rate of about one every 18 months. But the results are more often tragic than comic. And nowhere is this more evident than in the woeful lack of integration between rail and air. For decades, the Great Western Main Line ran just over a mile north of Heathrow, without a station to serve the airport. Now, of course, it is possible to take a premium service to the airport from London, but not from Reading or cities further west. And the new plans to build a western rail link still put Heathrow at the end of a branch line, rather than at the heart of a main line. At the same time, we are about to embark on Britain’s biggest ever rail investment while making an entirely separate decision over the future of our hub airport. Sir Humphrey would have been proud. Fortunately, there is plenty of innovative thinking going on in the private sector about how to connect airports with railway lines. Although the most eye-catching proposal has been for a new high speed orbital railway to link up with a new airport east of London, the most practical and the most transformative is at Britain’s largest airport to the west.
One coherent scheme
The ‘Heathrow Hub’ plan tears up the patchwork of improvements to Heathrow’s surface access and replaces them with one coherent scheme. There are four key elements. First, a new station on the Great Western Main Line, just to the east of the M25. This would bring direct, no-change services to Heathrow from all cities on the Great Western line, including Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter. Second, a new airport terminal immediately above the railway line, which would involve the demolition of a golf course but no houses. Upon leaving the train, passengers would check in directly, pass through security and transfer onto a fast airside tracked transit, which would take them directly to their aircraft satellite. This would also allow the demolition of Terminal 4, improving the layout of the airport.
Third, changing the route of HS2 so that it runs through the Heathrow Hub station, before roughly following the route of
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the M40 northwards. This would link all cities connected to the planned HS2 with frequent direct services to Heathrow, including Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle. By running alongside existing transport corridors, it would also follow the successful principles of the HS1 line. Fourth, a direct link between HS1 and HS2, with no need to interchange. This would provide direct connections between Heathrow and cities on the HS1 route, including the other side of the Channel Tunnel. And it would provide easy interchange
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