The Western Rail Approach to Heathrow is a proposed bi-directional link westward from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

to the

Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the or ...

. It would thus run, in council areas, from

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

under Iver,

South Bucks South Bucks was one of four local government districts in the non-metropolitan county of Buckinghamshire, in South East England. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, by the amalgamation of the area of Beacon ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

Langley Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Elizabeth Langley (born 1933), Canadian perfor ...

Slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...

. Beginning at

Heathrow Terminal 5 station Heathrow Terminal 5 is a shared railway and London Underground station serving Heathrow Terminal 5. It serves as a terminus for Heathrow Express services to Paddington, and for Elizabeth line and London Underground Piccadilly line services to ...

, it would run via a tunnel to a junction east of

Langley station Langley railway station is in Langley, a suburb of Slough, Berkshire, England. It is down the line from and is situated between to the east and to the west. The station is served by local services operated by the Elizabeth line. History ...

, therefore allowing trains to run to and from destinations in the west: , and beyond. When completed, it would improve rail connections to Heathrow from the

Thames Valley The Thames Valley is an informally-defined sub-region of South East England, centred on the River Thames west of London, with Oxford as a major centre. Its boundaries vary with context. The area is a major tourist destination and economic hub, ...

as well as from

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

and

The Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

. It would also reduce congestion at

London Paddington station Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great We ...

by removing the need, which presently exists, for passengers from Heathrow who are bound for those regions, to travel to Hayes and Harlington and then change at Reading or to make their interchange at Paddington, central London. Paddington would remain an interchange for services to/from Euston, Saint Pancras and London generally and a little of the Great Western Main Line would gain rail capacity as many services would take the resultant side loop via Heathrow. The rail link was first announced in 2012. The £900m link was brought to a “controlled pause” by Network Rail in January 2021 as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on the aviation industry raising concerns that the project may never be put into place.

Announcements

The project was announced by the Department of Transport in July 2012.

Theresa Villiers Theresa Anne Villiers (born 5 March 1968) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chipping Barnet since 2005, having previously served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2005. A member of the ...

, the rail minister at the time, included the project in the High Level Output Statement published in 2012. This stated 'The Government wishes to see a new railway link to give western rail access to Heathrow Airport' but did not commit to the scheme, making it 'subject to a satisfactory business case and the agreement of acceptable terms with the Heathrow aviation industry'. The

Airports Commission The Airports Commission was an independent commission established in September 2012 by the Government of the United Kingdom to consider how the UK can "maintain its status as an international hub for aviation and immediate actions to improve th ...

has expressed support for the link and included it in its 2014 report on the

Expansion of Heathrow Airport The expansion of Heathrow Airport is a series of proposals to add to the runways at London's busiest airport beyond its two long runways which are intensively used to serve four terminals and a large cargo operation. The plans are those present ...

Progress

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

originally estimated that the project could be operational by 2020. In January 2017, Network Rail's estimate was 2024. Slough Borough Council has cited 'parliamentary activity' as the reason for the delay but not offered further explanation. In May 2018, it was reported that Network Rail intended to apply for a Development Consent Order (DCO) in 2019, and the construction would be privately financed. Before submitting this, Network Rail would present the final designs for the scheme in a series of public information events, which were held in early 2020. The

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

's ''Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline'', published in October 2019, listed the project among those in an early stage of development, awaiting a "Decision to Design" and the completion of an outline business case. In December 2020, Network Rail stated that progress had been paused by the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

on the aviation and rail industries, and that agreement was awaited on a financial contribution from

Heathrow Airport Holdings Heathrow Airport Holdings is the United Kingdom-based operator of Heathrow Airport. The company also operated Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport, Edinburgh Airport and several other UK airports, but was forced by the Competition Commission to se ...

. Therefore, the DCO application would be delayed until at least the winter of 2022.

Route

The proposed route is a new railway line that would leave the Great Western Main Line between Langley and before entering a new twin-bore tunnel. The tunnel would pass under Richings Park and

Colnbrook Colnbrook is a village in the Slough district in Berkshire, England. It lies within the historic boundaries of Buckinghamshire, and straddles two distributaries of the Colne, the Colne Brook and Wraysbury River. These two streams have their conf ...

and then join existing lines at Heathrow Terminal 5. Four access buildings will be built along the route to provide emergency access to the tunnels, with two additionally providing ventilation. Realignment of the existing tracks will also be required between Langley and Iver. The route could potentially mean closure of Mansion / Hollow Hill Lane. The effects of this closure were being investigated by

Slough Borough Council Slough Borough Council is the local authority for the Borough of Slough, in Berkshire, England. Slough is a unitary authority, having the powers of a county and district council combined. Berkshire is purely a ceremonial county, with no admini ...

. The Western Rail Approach is, according to the Airport Expansion Consultation, designed to be "independent yet compatible" with the Heathrow expansion.

Services

It is envisaged that there would be a service of four trains an hour from Heathrow to and . Earlier publicity also suggested there would be two trains per hour to and .

Heathrow Express Heathrow Express is a high-frequency airport rail link operating between London Heathrow Airport and . Opened in 1998, trains run non-stop, with a journey time of 15 minutes. The service is operated jointly by Great Western Railway and Heathrow ...

have offered to run services to Reading which would stop only at Slough.

Alternative and complementary schemes

Other schemes have been proposed to connect Heathrow Airport to the Great Western Main Line. A western link featured in the

Heathrow Airtrack Heathrow Airtrack was a proposed railway link in the United Kingdom which would link Heathrow Airport in west London to London Waterloo railway station in Central London. The line, as proposed by BAA, would run from across the suburbs of ...

scheme, abandoned in 2011. Another alternative scheme was the

Windsor Link Railway The Windsor Link Railway was a proposed new railway in Windsor, Berkshire, connecting the Great Western and South Western franchise areas and linking both to London Heathrow Airport. George Bathurst originally proposed the plan in 2009 as ...

, proposed in 2013 and rejected by the government in 2018, which would have provided both western and southern access to Heathrow. A complementary scheme which could be developed at a later date, or alongside the Western Rail Approach, is the

Heathrow Southern Railway Heathrow Southern Railway is a proposed new railway in the United Kingdom which would link Heathrow Airport to railway lines south of London. The scheme, announced in August 2017, is promoted by Heathrow Southern Railway Limited and would be fin ...

, proposed since 2017 to provide links from the airport to the south and south-west.

References

External links

Western Rail Access to Heathrow: the future of rail travel to the airport
– Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership {{coord, 51.486, -0.520, display=title, region:GB, name=potential Western Rail Approach to Heathrow Rail transport in Berkshire Heathrow Airport transport proposals Proposed railway lines in England