As we know, currently there are two rail links to Heathrow Airport, both of which face London's city centre: the Piccadilly Line which enters from the east and loops between T4 and T123 (to be extended to T5 next year) and the Heathrow Express/Connect service which has a chord from the Great Western mainline to the north of the airport. This also connects T123 with T4, and will also connect T5 from next year.

Proposals for links to the south, west and north have been floated but nothing has come of them: presumably the cost/benefit isn't good enough or the political will is lacking. Anyway, here's a map showing two proposals (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=105767409706846287324.00043c62d78b39175a0a3&ll=51.48288,-0.474472&spn=0.091508,0.32135&t=h&z=12&om=1):

Airtrack, which would link via Staines to Waterloo, Woking, Basingstoke and Reading
a west-facing link to the Great Western mainline with stops at Slough, Maidenhead and Reading. This line could also form the start of a HS2 link to the North running alongside the M25 until it meets the branch from central London.


If it's deemed desirable to reduce car use for reaching airports, decent rail links will be needed to reach more of the catchment of Heathrow - which currently runs to much of southern England.

Edit: for some reason Airtrack isn't showing on my map even though I just drew it... :bash:

I was having a think about rail links to Heathrow as part of my own plans for rail in the south east. My initial idea was to have the H&C extended down onto the route to Heathrow on the express lines currently served by the Picc (tube-gauging issues on the Heathrow section aside). Heathrow T5 would also be served by a orbital railway from Harefield (and Ricky and Watford etc) to Staines via Uxbridge and West Drayton.

But then you have to wonder, would going from Paddington via the HEX lines then on to Felthem be a better proposal, running up the Richmond branch to rejoin the line back to Hammersmith, thus ignoring the Picc/District route completely, actually be better?

I think there should have been a west spur built when they built HEX - I know BAA wanted exclusivity but it would have made so much more sense - like the Cambridge spur at Stansted.

I suppose you couldn't have Diesel trains in the tunnels or stations though. I'd suggest 2tph, Slough, Reading and Oxford/Swindon. I think there could take care of all connections. If it was all electrified, a Birmingham service would be good, ditto Bristol.

Airtrack is a nice idea, but very circuitous to Reading. The Waterloo journey is also slow but Richmond and Clapham connections are important. Guildford route I think is pointless.

Guildford route I think is pointless.It's an interchange grabbing route. It also serves the area that's an easy drive to Heathrow on the M25 - it's also to get car travellers off the road and onto the train.

You could also, if you electrify the North Downs line, extend it to Gatwick.

That in itself is useful - it's the Aldershot/Ash reversing thing which is unappealing.

The initial stages of Airtrack are being funded by BAA and I think it is prepared to take it to Parliamentary stage by itself. This happened after the initial proposal the scheme threatened to drift into the typical government limbo land of 'lets launch a study of the study about the possible effectiveness of this and then ponder some more before we study it again'.

There is an airtrack websie floating around with a published business case. Its quite conservative and two thirds of its passengers would not be going to the Airport but either using it as congestion relief or the faster journeys available because on routes that have stopping services. The Reading and Waterloo services would be particularly important in this.

The Great Western Line is quite far north of Heathrow, combined with the interchange you have make to access the airport means that the Reading service would have good journey times and access important towns that have a lot of technology companies such as Bracknell and Wokingham.

While towns close to the Southside of Heathrow would no have one stop journeys to Heathrow, the interchanges at Guildford, Woking Clapham and Waterloo provide allow easy transfers from practically all of the South West train network. While lugging your luggage around Waterloo is not that easy, it is simple compared to trying it on the tube.