[Anonymous]

[tarisingh]

Heard this might be on the cards – anyone know anything about this?

Be great if it was!

[NTarrant]

It has been mooted for sometime to connect LHR with a spur from Staines, but don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen.

[ImissConcorde]

This scheme was called “Airtrack” and was finally knocked on the head in April 2012. The main difficulty was the number of level crossings between Waterloo and Heathrow. The crossing at Pooley Green, Egham would have been closed for 38 minutes of each hour.

[SimonS1]

We have moved on since then and there is a new proposal doing the rounds called ‘Airtrack Lite’.

http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/article/10776/new_airtrack_plan_to_connect_heathrow

[greyhawkgeoff]

presumably Wandsworth Council will fund the scheme by increasing the local taxes? Pigs will fly first. And donn’t discount the opposition in Staines to the new line through the town center!.

[markskarratts]

There’s no way this will go through, and if it’s going via the Hounslow Loop it won’t exactly be an express service. They could still build the line from T5 to Staines though so that trains could go to Southampton, Bournemouth & Portsmouth with onward connections to places like Salisbury and Exeter.

[SurreyTraveller01]

It’s not surprising that the “Airtrack project” was a failure: existing issues raised by local communities were simply ignored and the consultation was a joke.

Let me give you an example. Egham is cut in 2 by no less than 4 level crossings. The downtime is already more than 30 minutes per hour creating significant congestion, pollution, disruption to local bus services etc. Nothing is being done to address these problems

Any project linking LHR to Staines bears a risk to see more train services introduced making things worse for local communities. Network Rail and other stakeholders must address such problems first instead of ignoring them

[Bucksnet]

Egham and Staines have no bearing on a train service from Waterloo to Heathrow.

[SurreyTraveller01]

Well, yes if a train line is built between T5 and Staines, Staines will impacted.

And let’s imagine that train and network operators spend millions of £ to build this line. Do you really think only a few train services to Waterloo would be introduced. The temptation would be too strong to add more train services (for example towards Reading and other destinations on the line that goes through Egham).

The situation in Egham is already unacceptable. We need commitments that local issues will be addressed too, and no longer dismissed.

[AnthonyDunn]

And yet another reason for the unsuitability of LHR as the site of further expansion – and why it is that we now need to find an alternative site that will provide four runways with 24/7 capability and the ability to allow a comprehensive range of regional connections from the whole of the UK and Ireland plus feeder traffic from mainland Europe.

The Victorians were able to do BIG infrastructure so why cannot we?

[Bucksnet]

A spur line heading north from the line between Feltham and Ashford is all that’s required. Nothing to do with Egham and Staines.

As I’ve previously posted regarding a new station north of LHR, the same could be done in the south. That is all trains would stop there and connections could be made. People heading into London would stay on the train, and those going west would get off and wait for an existing train heading that way.

Airtrack and airtrack lite are a waste of money and non-starters.

[transtraxman]

Airtrack Lite has quietly dropped off the scene.

This idea was originally proposed by Wandsworth council with a confusing diagram which did not clarify if the service was to be stopping, semi-fast or express. The idea was later supported by Hounslow and Hammersmith councils, and even received the wink from Boris himself. Of course each of those councils expected the service to stop in their borough.

The proposal suggested running 4 tph through Richmond and 2 tph through Hounslow to Staines where the Heathrow carriages were to be decoupled from the Reading (or other destination) trains to run along the new chord into LHR T5 (as in the original Airtrack proposal).

As happened with Airtrack nobody was able to provide a solution to the 5/3 level crossings(depending on the route) to be transversed without causing further disruption. The solution was combining Heathrow trains with those to other destinations coupling/decoupling at Staines. The great problem here was the time for such an operation and the need for a new train path each time. This would become impossible during rush-hours when everything is finely tuned and any minor delay could have a tremendous knock-on effect, EVEN IF TRAIN PATHS BECAME AVAILABLE. This , of course, was just at the time when there would be most demand into/ out of LHR.

[Bucksnet]

If most trains going west of Ashford went via the Hounslow loop then there would be less trains going over level crossings on the line via Richmond. Passengers going from Waterloo to stations west of Ashford would simply take the LHR express and change; their journey would also be faster.

[transtraxman]

AD.
I agree something has to done about airport capacity and my views are well known on this forum.

I just have not heard any realistic alternative to the expansion of the present airports. In my view LHR should have its third runway, at the very least to help with meteorological problems as at present. However, that would not be enough, I would go for a second runway at Gatwick, with building to start(all the preparation beforehand) in September 2019 when the present limiting agreement runs out.
The other real alternative is expanding Luton to four runways.

A green field site is a non-starter. The Estuary airport is also not realistic for many different reasons already mentioned in many different forums. 24 hour operation is going to be a problem whichever airport is used as nobody wants their beauty sleep interrupted – this would be aggravated by an Estuary airport as sound travels more easily, and further, over water.

If you really want to start from scratch(or nearly so) and build a macro project ( just like the Victorians) then Luton is the answer. The best thing about it is that it can be an ongoing working project, with no interruption to present operations.

Where there is a will, there is a way – but realistically please.

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