BAA chief executive Colin Matthews will today back plans for high speed rail (HSR), outlining why customer experience and rapid, regular links to Heathrow will be vital to improving and de-carbonising transport.
The airports operator has spent over £750m on rail links over the last decade. Combined with its £5bn Heathrow investment programme, it makes BAA the country’s biggest private investor in transport. With this track record of support for public infrastructure, Heathrow sees rail as a complementary - rather than competing - mode of transport.
Improved rail links will widen Heathrow's catchment area leading to fuller planes and more UK passengers taking one flight instead of two to their final destination, improving carbon efficiency, he will tell today’s Transport Times conference in London.
Mr Matthews will also say that with high speed trains Heathrow can compete with Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam airports – which already boast modern rail links. Heathrow’s main European competitors each serve more destinations than the UK’s only hub. This means that many passengers from UK regions are forced to take two flights – one to a competitor hub airport in Europe and then another to their final destination.
HSR will help by ensuring planes to long-haul destinations are full, making more long-haul routes into viable propositions for airlines. Businesses particularly rely on a high frequency of services, but these can only be accommodated if demand can be efficiently cumulated at a hub airport.
One vital factor in ensuring the success of HSR will be frequency. Passengers need to be confident that narrowly missing a train won’t mean missing their flight. Similarly, ensuring that customers enjoy the experience is also essential. Being able to alight close to Heathrow’s check-in areas will be key.
Travellers using the current Heathrow Express link from London can board the train and get off 15 minutes later, before checking in and walking through security without lifting their luggage up any levels at all. Planning HSR to be ultra-accessible – so passengers don’t have to lift heavy luggage up stairs or across crowded platform – will ultimately determine whether passengers trade their cars for trains.
Colin Matthews, BAA chief executive, said: “Our £5bn investment programme is making Heathrow a brighter, better and friendlier airport. We need to reduce emissions and to make best use of our limited runway capacity. That is why we want to ensure our planes are full and fly to the widest range of destinations. High speed rail is a win for everyone, provided it offers frequent connections and great passenger experience.
“It’s also vital that HSR is fast enough to tempt passengers away from flying short-haul to Europe and continuing from there. It would be bad for our economy if we lost out to rivals better connected to emerging markets. The government has maintained investment in domestic transport in spite of cutbacks elsewhere, but you cannot get to the BRIC economies by train. We need to place the same priority on connecting UK business to long haul global markets.”
