Rail hub plan for Heathrow

A mainline station linking Heathrow to the national rail network and Channel tunnel could transform Europe’s most congested airport into a world class transport hub, according to a proposal put forward by Arup, the civil engineering consultants.

Under the plans the new high-speed rail station built on the Great Western main line would make the airport more accessible to the west, the south-west, Wales and the Midlands. Cities such as Birmingham, Oxford and Cardiff would have direct services to the airport.

The engineering group is proposing in a first step to extend the present high-speed rail line from the Channel tunnel, which currently terminates at St Pancras International, to the new Heathrow Hub station, which would be built 3.5 km to the north of the airport just to the north-east of the junction of the M25 and M4 motorways.

The development of the hub station would make it more attractive for many air travellers to arrive at Heathrow by rail than by road, said Mr Bostock. Heathrow currently handles about 68m passengers a year.

Arup said only 22 per cent of passengers arrived at the airport by rail, including by the London Underground, compared with 65 per cent coming by car.

The engineering group has begun discussions with BAA, the operator of Heathrow, airlines, the rail industry, local councils and government and is seeking to foster high-level political support for the proposals.

Mark Bostock, an Arup director, said the Heathrow Hub project would fit in with emerging proposals to extend high-speed rail lines north. “Looking to the future we could see travel times from Heathrow to Leeds and Manchester by rail reduced to less than two hours …Passengers travelling to Heathrow would be encouraged out of their cars and on to trains delivering environmental benefits.”

Arup said Heathrow was vital to the national transport infrastructure but needed much better accessibility. It believes the proposals could be delivered for less than £10bn and the hub could be in operation by 2017.

The plan would include a 12-platform station built between the existing West Drayton and Iver stations, including eight platforms for domestic services. A twin track 24km high-speed rail link would be built largely in tunnels to join the existing high speed line above St Pancras International.

Arup envisages the hub station providing extra terminal capacity for the airport with check-in and baggage facilities and suggests the station could replace a possible sixth terminal building that has been proposed to accompany the building of a third runway at Heathrow.

The airport would be joined to the hub station by an automatic people mover rail system and baggage conveyor travelling to Terminal 5 in five minutes and the Heathrow East Terminal (due to replace Terminals 1 and 2) and Terminal 3 in 10 minutes.

Arup believes the Heathrow Hub proposal could replace a significant number of short-haul domestic and European flights with rail journeys.

It said 104 domestic flights arrived at and departed from Heathrow, while a further 140 flights went to and from European cities that would be within a 2½ hour high speed train journey from the airport.

The government is expected to report later this year the results of a recent public consultation into plans to build a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow by around 2020, for which improved rail access would be a vital element.