02.02.16
Heathrow rail link delay branded ‘pathetic’ by MP
The slippages in the Western Rail Link to Heathrow project to late CP6 have been branded “pathetic” by Slough MP Fiona Mactaggart. Speaking to BBC Radio Berkshire yesterday, the Labour MP also suggested the link “does not have an effective champion inside the Department for Transport”.
The project requires a 5km tunnel from the Great Western Main Line to Heathrow Terminal 5, enabling passengers from the west to travel to the airport from Reading via Slough, without the need to change at Paddington. There would be up to four trains an hour from Reading to Heathrow, calling at Slough and Maidenhead or Twyford. Trains would take about 26 minutes, which is 35 minutes shorter than the current rail route via London.
Network Rail’s Enhancements Delivery Plan Update after the Hendy Review says the infrastructure would not be ready until ‘late CP6’, suggesting around 2023-2024, instead of 2021 as originally announced in 2012 and as Network Rail had been planning for until recently.
It blames difficulties in the Development Consent Order process and negotiations with landowners.
Julian Burnell from Network Rail said during the same interview that consulting landowners for the DCO was a “long process” and that the delay is not really anybody’s fault. But it’s “absolutely not” because the DfT is not giving the project a high enough priority, as alleged by Mactaggart, he said. “This is a lot of tunnelling, a brand new tunnel, it’s an entirely new stretch of railway, and that takes a lot of time and a lot of careful planning,” he said.
The plans originally went out to consultation a year ago, but Network Rail is about to start fresh consultations locally.
Works are now due to start in April 2019, following GRIP 3 approval in principle and GRIP 4 (single option scope defined) by August next year.
The project also depends on earlier works being completed on GWML electrification, Crossrail, ETCS on the Western route, and the removal of the Heathrow Express depot at Old Oak Common to make way for HS2.