Opinion
between cities on the Great Western line and Eurostar trains at the Heathrow Hub station, without the need to travel through central London on the Underground.
The crucial advantage of the scheme is that a direct line offers a much higher frequency of service than a branch line, whether high speed or not. It is the reason why other airports, including Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris, have rail lines running directly through the airport. And it is the most important argument for implementing the Heathrow Hub concept, whether or not the airport expands.
If Heathrow remains a two-runway airport, passengers could travel direct to the airport in less than two hours from most key
cities, and much less when the second phase of HS2 is complete. This could free up much-needed capacity by replacing domestic flights on a number of key routes. And if politicians rediscover a modicum of courage and take the decision to allow an extra runway, the rail scheme could help to support further long- haul routes, by ensuring that a greater proportion of hub traffic arrives and departs Heathrow by rail rather than air. The one downside of the proposal is that it adds a few minutes onto the HS2 journey time. But it could potentially be delivered at £2-3 billion less than the combined cost of the current HS2 and western access plans. For the passenger, the connectivity benefits could be enormous, with trains departing Heathrow every 15 minutes to almost every city in the country.
Combined air and rail tickets
The gains from integrating the physical rail and airport infrastructure will be limited if the ticketing infrastructure is left unchanged. In Germany, Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa offer combined air and rail tickets on certain routes. And this will also be needed in the UK. These combined tickets should be similar in price to indirect flights and allow travel on any relevant rail service, whether or not the plane lands early or late. The Airports Commission has a unique opportunity to look at rail and air together, not separately. And the signs are that it will do just that. Changing the route of the southern end of HS2 after so much work has already been done may seem like an admission of failure, and there are bound to be protests far beyond the Department for Transport. But in reality, it is key to making both high speed rail and aviation a success. Corin Taylor is a senior economic adviser at the Institute of Directors (
www.iod.com)
TrainFX
The multi-taltent in railroad construction. With 1.350 blows per minute the ideal tie tamper.
Just one click to the no. 1 choice:
www.wackerneuson.com
Contact: +44 (0) 1992 707 200
www.trainFX.com
enquiries@trainFX.com 01332 366 175
TrainFX is a UK-based Rail Technology Company who specialise in the design and supply of leading edge technologies including ...
PRM / TSI compliant Passenger Information Systems, PA, Crew Communications, Emergency Call For Aid with Talk Back,
SM[ART]SEAT technologies including Near Field Communications and Occupancy Sensors, Media and Communications Systems to our Rail Sector Clients
HEAD OFFICE
15 Melbourne Business Court, Millenium Way, Pride Park, Derby DE24 8LZ
Part of the Changzhou Evergreen Group of Companies
Page 24 July/August 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148