Minister vows to consider improving Heathrow rail links in third runway review

Improving Heathrow Airport’s rail links will be considered as part of a third runway review, Heidi Alexander has pledged.

The Transport Secretary faced a call for a “cast-iron guarantee” that towns near the airport will get a rail link, if work begins to expand Heathrow.

Ms Alexander said on Wednesday that the Government has started a review of the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), which will provide the framework for judging plans for airport growth.

Liberal Democrat MP Will Forster told the Commons that his “constituency of Woking is 16 minutes from Heathrow and yet has no rail link to our country’s busiest airport”.

He asked: “Can she give me a cast-iron guarantee that if this airport is expanded, that Woking will finally get the rail link it needs?”

Ms Alexander replied that the Government “will be looking at rail in detail through the ANPS review and the public transport requirements in order to be able to have an expanded Heathrow with a third runway that operates successfully”.

Trains from parts of London and Essex arrive into Heathrow’s stations.

But stations south and west of the transport hub, including in Berkshire and Surrey, lack a direct rail link.

Florence Eshalomi, the Labour MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, urged Ms Alexander to “make sure that there is funding to secure the vital transport infrastructure to any new airport”.

The Cabinet minister said the Government “will be looking at these issues very closely”.

She told MPs: “How people get to and from an airport is as important as the number of flights and planes that are landing and taking off.”

The Transport Secretary later said: “I would also point out that Transport for London are currently buying a new fleet of Piccadilly Line trains that in and of themselves have higher capacity. It’s a larger fleet replacement programme – 10 new Elizabeth Line trains are also being built.

“But we will look as a whole at the whole issue of how people get to and from the airport, because I agree with her that it’s absolutely vital.”

Asked to say who will pay for public transport improvements by Luke Taylor, Liberal Democrat MP for Sutton and Cheam, Ms Alexander replied: “I am clear that this project will need to be privately financed.

“That includes the core project and the associated infrastructure improvements.

“It will be for the promoter who submits a planning application to set out in that planning application how it is consistent with the reviewed ANPS.”

The nearby M4 and M25 motorways must not “turn into a car park”, the Transport Secretary added.

Conservative MP Ben Spencer joined calls for improved railway infrastructure near Heathrow, which he warned was already under pressure.

The Runnymede and Weybridge MP said that this week he waited 12 minutes for level crossing barriers to rise in Egham, Surrey.

He asked if rail was going to be in scope of the ANPS review.

“We desperately need to deal with our level crossings and have better rail access from Egham to Heathrow to make this work,” he said.

Ms Alexander replied: “I do agree that we need to deal with the issue of level crossings on the rail network, and we will be looking holistically at rail requirements as part of the ANPS review.”