No high-speed rail link to Heathrow is needed

22 July 2010

Commenting on the independent report by Lord Mawhinney on High speed rail access to Heathrow, Ralph Smyth, to Protect Rural England (CPRE), says:

"It is clear from this report that Lord Mawhinney found no compelling case for a high speed link to Heathrow at present. This will be welcome news to countryside campaigners who have questioned the need for and cost of a direct high speed rail link to the airport. Instead the report recommends better planning to integrate the proposed High Speed 2 route and Heathrow into the existing rail network."

CPRE has taken a leading role in examining the environmental costs and benefits of High Speed 2. It was one of the few organisations selected to give oral evidence to Lord Mawhinney as part of his review. CPRE raised particular concerns about the impact on London's Green Belt and surrounding congested roads from the proposal for a parkway station to serve the airport known as 'Heathrow Hub', which would have been located on flood plain near next to the Great Western Main Line at Iver . The report recommended that were a high speed rail link be built, it should go to the Central Terminal Area instead.

Ralph Smyth, continued: "It never made sense to build a parkway station on flood plain three miles from the main airport site. We hope that this recommendation means that the Heathrow Hub proposal is now dead in the water. The impact on the Green Belt and first stretch of countryside outside London would have been worse than the Third Runway."