The Government looks set to put plans for a Heathrow high-speed rail link on the back burner after a Tory peer commissioned to review access to the London airport said there was ‘no compelling case’ for a direct link.
Lord Mawhinney concluded that Heathrow should have high-speed access only after the fast rail network is extended beyond Birmingham to the north of England.
He said that the cost of extending the high-speed route via Heathrow of between £2 billion and £4 billion would not represent good value for money to the taxpayer or the train operator.
"As the network expands… over time there will be greater demand for access to Heathrow from cities in the north and Scotland, which might make a direct high-speed rail connection to Heathrow… more viable and economically attractive," he said.
"The evidence presented to me suggests that this would only be in prospect after the high-speed network had been extended at least to Manchester and Leeds."
Lord Mawhinney’s report was welcomed by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), which argued that a high-speed link would be more damaging to the countryside than a third runway at Heathrow.
CPRE senior transport campaigner Ralph Smyth said: "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.
"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."
By Linsey McNeill
