Modern Railways – April 2019

68 Modern Railways April 2019 http://www.modern-railways.com

THEO STEEL assesses trends in the number of airport users travelling by rail

H

ow reliant are airport users on rail?

The publication of the London

Travelwatch (LT) report ‘Way to go:

improving public transport access to London’s

airports’ in February prompted me to look at

the UK’s airports and their relationship with rail.

The LT report highlights the static public

transport market share to London’s airports

along with a number of helpful actions

that could be taken to improve matters.

These range from establishing rail access

to the south-west and west of Heathrow,

through service frequency improvements

such as Gatwick to Reading/Oxford, to

ticketing and interchange improvements,

noting that not a little has been done.

Crossrail will be a very important and

positive development for Heathrow, aiding

seamless distribution in central London

with lift-equipped, step-free stations.

Table 1 shows the public transport

market share at London’s five largest

airports in 2010, 2012 and 2016.

Given that Luton and Gatwick have

been much affected by Thameslink and

London Bridge issues as well as the

Southern strikes I was pleasantly surprised

that rail had held up so well. From 2012

air traffic has grown quickly as we shall

see – particularly in the leisure sector.

AIRPORT GROWTH

Table 2 shows airports with a rail relationship

in the UK and their throughput in 1997,

2007, 2012 and 2017. Glasgow, Bristol, Exeter,

Bournemouth, Newquay and Norwich are shown

for interest; Doncaster Sheffield and Inverness as

the airport terminals are close to railway lines and

are the object of possible new station schemes.

The air industry was severely affected by the

financial crisis in 2008 – indeed, Manston (Kent)

TABLE 1: PUBLIC TRANSPORT SHARES AT LONDON AIRPORTS (%)

2010 2012 2016

Heathrow 40 41 39

Gatwick 43 44 44

Stansted 48 51 55

Luton 33 33 31

City 53 50 51

TAKING THE TRAIN

TO THE PLANE

Built by the airport operator: Greater Anglia’s No 321430 calls at

Southend Airport station forming the 11.30 Southend Victoria –

Liverpool Street service on 24 August 2017. Antony Guppy

068-069_MR_Apr 2019_airports.indd 68 11/03/2019 17:26