Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
8 June 2010
Background
The Mayor has submitted a statement to Lord Mawhinney to assist with his review of
options for serving Heathrow Airport with the proposed route of High Speed 2 (HS2).
Following a meeting between the Mayor and Lord Mawhinney on the 3 June 2010, the
Mayor would like to submit further evidence, which is set out in the attached paper as an
addendum to the original submission. This additional paper covers the following areas:
1. Why serving Heathrow as part of HS2 is important for London
2. Options for serving Heathrow on a high speed spur / loop
3. The benefits of connecting HS2 to HS1
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1. Why is it important for HS2 to provide access to Heathrow Airport?
1.1. The overall proportion of HS2 passengers wishing to access Heathrow Airport is
expected to be small compared to those wishing to access central London.
However, as the UK’s only International Hub airport, serving Heathrow by high
speed rail is essential for a number of reasons set out below:
1.2. There is an opportunity for some of the domestic flights serving Heathrow to be
transferred from air to high speed rail. This is particularly relevant for those
domestic flights connecting at Heathrow from Scotland. Whilst the full potential of
this will not be realised until the full high speed network is completed, it is clearly
sensible to plan for this from the outset. Reducing the number of regional flights
whilst maintaining (and possibly improving) accessibility to Heathrow from regional
UK cities is consistent with the role of Heathrow as a hub airport and could help
release capacity at Heathrow for additional long haul services which is positive for
the London economy. These improved connections by rail rather than air will also
benefit various UK regions.
1.3. Whilst Heathrow achieves a high public transport mode share for access to/from
central London, for journeys to Heathrow from outside London, car usage remains
dominant. If HS2 improves access to UK regions, it has the potential to significantly
increase the use of public transport to access Heathrow, with a potential reduction
in congestion and vehicles emissions, particularly in West London.
1.4. For those in the UK regions who currently access Heathrow via Central London, a
link into Heathrow from HS2 could contribute to easing the pressure on central
London’s transport infrastructure by reducing the amount of travel across Central
London
2.1. There is an option for serving Heathrow Airport as a spur from the main high speed
line at Old Oak Common. This would mean that the station at Old Oak Common
would be provided (giving all the benefits for London set out in the earlier paper)
and a separate alignment would be constructed to access Heathrow from Old Oak
Common. Whilst TfL has not seen any details of this proposal, Figure 1, below, sets
out how this proposition could work.
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Figure 1 – Serving Heathrow using a high speed spur
Birmingham Euston
HS2 Alignment
Old Oak Common
2.2. The main difference with this proposal is that Old Oak Common would be
connected to Heathrow by a high speed spur rather than the existing Crossrail /
Heathrow Express services. To achieve this would involve construction of a
dedicated high speed alignment from Old Oak Common to a new high speed
station at Heathrow Airport. This would have the potential to be connected to the
high speed line directly at Old Oak Common allowing services to operate directly
from Euston to Heathrow Airport.
2.3. Preliminary analysis suggests this would involve construction of up to 15km of
additional tunnel and a separate high speed station at Heathrow Airport, costing in
excess of £1bn. The station at Heathrow Airport would be located on an east west
axis (to allow for longer term connections to HS2 in the west) in the vicinity of the
Bath Road/A4 corridor. A station under the CTA has been ruled out because of the
engineering complexity and potential disruption from trying to build such a station
within the heart of an operation airport. This would mean onward connections to
Heathrow would still have to be provided, either by a series of travelator
connections (up to 1 km) or a new station on the Crossrail / Heathrow Express
alignment.
2.4. For a passenger from the North wishing to access Heathrow airport using HS2, this
would mean a change at Old Oak Common on to the high speed spur line and then
another change at Heathrow high speed station to access the individual terminal
areas.
2.5. The alternative to this is to use the proposed Heathrow Express / Crossrail
connections from Old Oak Common directly to Heathrow Terminals 123, Terminal
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4 or Terminal 5. There is potential to increase the provision of trains using the
Heathrow Express tunnel to 12 trains per hour. In the future, it might be feasible to
merge Heathrow Express and Crossrail services to provide unified 12tph
nonstop/one‐stop service from OOC (and beyond). In this scenario, the journey
time from Old Oak Common to Heathrow CTA would be 11 minutes, plus 2.5
minutes wait time.
2.6. This proposal is set out in more detail in Figure 2, below:
Figure 2 – Serving Heathrow using existing Command Paper plans
21 mins Central
11 mins London
Paddington
Crossrail
services Heathrow Key
Express
services High Speed line
Heathrow Express
Heathrow CTA
Crossrail
2.7. A comparison of each option is set out below:
Option 1 – Old Oak
Common with 1 c. £2bn (incl. new
Up to 15 tph 9‐10 mins 1
Heathrow high speed station)
spur
Option 2 – Old Oak
small increase in
Common and no
Up to 12 tph 13‐14 mins 0 operating costs to run
Heathrow high speed
12 tph in HEx tunnel
spur
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Assumes high speed spur from Old Oak Common to Heathrow has average speed of 180 km/hr
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2.8. A latter phase of this option (possibly introduced alongside an extension of HS2
north of Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester) would be to connect the Heathrow
spur back into the main route of HS2 around the M25, allowing through running of
HS2 services via Heathrow Airport as an alternative to running direct to Central
London via Old Oak Common. This is illustrated on Figure 3 below.
Birmingham Euston
HS2 Alignment
Old Oak Common
Heathrow High Speed
5 mins 5 mins Key
Crossrail & Heathrow High Speed 2
2 mins Express services
Crossrail
Heathrow CTA
2.9. This option would involve construction of a longer tunnel for HS2 services (an
additional 16km) at an additional cost of c£1bn. However, the major benefit would
be greatly enhanced flexibility for HS2 services to operate directly to Central
London via Old Oak Common (with the fastest journey time) or to serve Heathrow
Airport direct en route to Central London. The key issue with this arrangement
would be to ensure there was consistency in service levels between both branches
to ensure there was a sufficiently attractive service for passengers.
2.10. For example, if there were four HS2 trains an hour from Manchester to London, the
number operating direct via Old Oak Common and the number that would run via
Heathrow Airport would need to be determined. TfL has not seen any details of
this proposal or any assessment of potential benefits to justify the additional cost
but believe there would be merit in developing this idea further. It would also be
possible to operate services between Heathrow and the North; however,
terminating as well as through platforms would be required, adding to the cost of
the high speed station at Heathrow.
2.11. A further development of this option would be to examine how high speed services
could then be extended as a future phase to serve the south east of England both as
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a way of improving rail access to Heathrow from the south east, but also to improve
longer distance north‐south connectivity avoiding the need to travel through
Central London. Construction of a loop to Heathrow would potentially have some
benefit in making this connection easier and supporting the development of some
of the wider options being considered by Greengauge 21. One possibility would be
to create a link from HS2 south towards Woking to connect into the South West
Trains network as shown on Figure 4.
Figure 4 – Serving Heathrow using a high speed loop
Birmingham Euston
HS2 Alignment
Old Oak Common
Heathrow High Speed
Crossrail & Heathrow
Express services
Heathrow CTA
Woking
Key
High Speed 2
Crossrail
Classic Line
Southampton Portsmouth
2.12. Under this scenario, a whole range of service options would be available including:
Southampton – Woking – Heathrow
Portsmouth – Woking – Birmingham
Southampton – Woking – Heathrow – Old Oak Common – Euston
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3. Comparison of options
3.1. The following table summarises the three options for serving Heathrow.
Option 1 – high speed
c. £2bn 9‐10 mins 1 Up to 15 tph
spur
Option 2 – high speed
c. £3bn 9‐10 mins 1 Up to 15 tph
loop
Option 3 – Command
0 13‐14 mins (HEx) 0 Up to 12 tph
Paper proposal
3.2. A high speed spur from Old Oak Common to Heathrow will generate journey time
savings of approximately 4‐5 minutes compared to using the proposed Heathrow
Express / Crossrail services from Old Oak Common. However, a high speed spur
would not serve the central terminal area (CTA) directly; a change would still be
required at the high speed station onto Crossrail / Heathrow Express services or a
series of travelators. There is potential to increase the frequency of Crossrail and
Heathrow Express services from Old Oak Common to Heathrow Airport up to 12tph
without major infrastructure works required which would reduce wait times and
increase capacity.
3.3. A high speed spur would have a higher capacity than the Command Paper proposal
– however, only 2,000 passengers per day (by HS2) are forecast to want to access
Heathrow directly, not justifying such a high capacity route initially. However, a
high speed loop could provide wider connectivity benefits in the longer term
allowing improved access to Heathrow Airport from the North of England and the
potential for southern connections into the HS2 network, which would have major
benefits for Heathrow access and also long distance north‐south connectivity. A
high speed loop would mean Birmingham is only 46 minutes and one change away
from Heathrow, compared to 58 minutes under the Command Paper proposals.
However, sending all the HS2 trains via Heathrow would result in longer journey
times (around 10 minutes) for the majority of passengers (Birmingham – Euston);
therefore, it is likely that only a small proportion of HS2 services would run via
Heathrow, which would imply a more limited frequency for Heathrow passengers.
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4. HS2 connection to HS1
4.1. TfL has offered continuing support for High Speed 2 to be connected to High Speed
1, to allow a range of services to run, potentially bypassing central London. A
connection between the two high speed services is important for the following
reasons:
A link would allow through running from, say, Birmingham to continental
Europe;
Improved links could increase the public transport mode share for surface
access to Heathrow; and
A direct rail connection could allow Stratford International station to be fully
utilised given its importance to east London and considerable onward public
transport connections available
4.2. Furthermore, if there was a dedicated loop on HS2 serving Heathrow then this
would allow for direct services from HS1 to Heathrow allowing longer distance
services from Europe to Heathrow but also local regional services from Ebbsfleet
and Kent to Heathrow. This would improve accessibility to Heathrow from this
area, helping to reduce access by car and reducing journey times. Currently, only
1.3m passengers a year from Kent use Heathrow (out of 66m). 3m per year use
Gatwick, but only 12% use public transport to access the airport 2. A new link from
Kent to Heathrow could potentially switch a significant number of passengers onto
High Speed services to Heathrow
Figure 5, below, indicates what links could become possible were HS2 connected to
HS1.
2
http://www.gatwickairport.com/Documents/business_and_community/Misc/Gatwick_Surface_Access_Strat_
2007.pdf
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Figure 5 – Potential connections with a link between HS2 and HS1
Key
HS2 alignment HS1 alignment
Possible
further link to
HS2 Heathrow loop Interchange
east Midlands /
Crossrail Terminal Cambridge /
to Birmingham Peterborough ?
Potential link to HS1
Old Oak Common Stratford
Euston St Pancras
Canary Wharf
Heathrow
to France
4.3. However, the nature of the link is of high importance to the Mayor and TfL because
it has the potential to impact considerably on local London services using the North
London Line, which is in the process of being upgraded as part of the Overground
network. This line has experienced rapid growth and has major potential as a key
part of a much enhanced orbital rail network and any proposals by HS2 to reduce
the capacity of the line or impact on the ability for its full potential to be realised for
local services would be resisted. It is essential that the HS2 proposals for
connecting HS2 and HS1 do not materially impact on the North London Line.
4.4. HS2 Ltd is currently assessing the feasibility of providing direct rail links between
HS2 and HS1. A two‐track option running along the North London Line corridor has
been costed at just under £1 bn. Line speed would be restricted to 60 kph.
Connection to HS1 can only easily be made where HS1 is on the surface, so the
most practical option is just beyond St Pancras station, where such a connection
already exists. HS2 Ltd is focusing on an existing route via Primrose Hill and
Camden Road. TfL have made it clear that London Overground operations cannot
be adversely impacted, and the North London Line is also one of the most
important freight routes in the country. HS2 Ltd is therefore investigating a mix of
new infrastructure and upgrade of existing tracks to make this connection. The
study will seek to understand whether HS2 services could run along this stretch of
the NLL without overly reducing track capacity to other services.
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4.5. If the potential for through running of HS2/HS1 services is achieved there will still be
a demand for interchange between the two high sped rail terminals at St Pancras
and Euston. Whilst physically close to each other, these two termini do not
currently operate as a single location and it will be important that measures are
taken to help achieve this. The Underground lines connecting Kings Cross/St
Pancras and Euston are already some of the most congested in London and TfL
would seek to minimise the amount of interchange between these stations via the
Underground to help preserve any available capacity for longer distance
underground journeys.
4.6. Options for reducing the severance between the stations include:
1. A high capacity people mover between Euston and St Pancras. This would
follow the Brill Place / Phoenix Road alignment, as shown below. An above
ground people mover is being investigated by HS2 Ltd. Estimated cost is
currently unknown. See Figure 6, below for alignment details:
Figure 6 – Potential people mover alignment between Euston and St
Pancras
St Pancras station
Euston station
Euston Road
2. A DLR extension to Euston via St Pancras, which could fulfil the same function,
is also being investigated.
3. TfL is currently investigating whether the Chelsea Hackney Line or a similar
kind of system would be necessary to address the dispersal of passengers from
high speed trains at Euston, given levels of crowding on existing Underground
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lines. Diverting the safeguarded route of the Chelsea Hackney Line (CHL) to
serve Euston would mean a station could be located to serve all three terminals
(Euston; Kings Cross and St Pancras) with access at either end. Euston and
Kings Cross / St Pancras would be linked by a subterranean link, an
improvement on the existing walk along Euston Road.
5. Summary
5.1. In summary, this paper recognises that:
Serving Heathrow by High Speed 2 is important to the Mayor and TfL for a
variety of reasons. Heathrow would be served adequately by the proposals for
a station at Old Oak Common with a service frequency and journey time
comparable to the High speed spur.
The Mayor is supportive of the idea for a high speed loop allowing HS2 trains to
serve Heathrow directly en‐route to London or pass by serving Old Oak
Common. This would add c£2bn towards the cost of the project but could
potentially add significant benefits. There would be longer term options to
extend the line southwards to provide a link between the South West Trains
network and Heathrow/HS2;
Connecting HS2 to HS1 via a direct rail link is desirable, but must not
compromise operations on the London Overground network. Such a link would
allow new high speed “through” services to operate, maximising the potential
of Stratford International station and giving direct rail access to Heathrow from
Kent;
Transforming Kings Cross / St Pancras / Euston into a single rail hub is required
regardless of whether a direct rail link is provided. The uplift in demand as a
result of HS2 is significant and TfL is examining the level of mitigation required
to accommodate this growth.
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