Written evidence from Network Rail (STA0070)

 

  1. Summary

1.1.  Good rail connectivity to airports is vital for supporting economic growth, productivity and social mobility. Therefore, surface access to airports is a key consideration when assessing and planning the future railway. Through the Long Term Planning Process (LTPP), Network Rail works with airports and other partners to identify the current and future needs of rail access to airports via the railway. These requirements are then factored into the industry’s plans for Britain’s growing railway. This has enabled Network Rail to deliver significant improvements to airport access, as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan, including recent and current major enhancements at Manchester and Gatwick airport. It is also in the advanced stages of planning a new rail link to Heathrow to improve access from the west of England via the Great Western main line. Other airports’ aspirations have also been captured and included in Network Rail’s route study process so that further potential enhancements can be identified.

 

1.2.  When planning the railway, Network Rail takes into account the different priorities of rail users and tries to reach the best balance between the different markets; commuter, leisure, freight and airport passengers. This can involve trade-offs as the priorities of commuters and airport passengers are generally different. Integration of services, wherever possible, allows for the optimal use of constrained network capacity. This can be seen on the Brighton main line in peak times, where fast Gatwick Express services, which cater for airport passengers, are extended to start from Brighton to maximise commuter capacity.

 

  1. Planning the future railway

2.1.  Network Rail’s LTPP aims to identify and offer solutions for the challenges that the railway will face over the next 30 years. The LTPP comprises a series of studies that will support the industry, its funders and stakeholders to understand the capability of the network as a whole and what future interventions may be needed:

 

 

2.2.  A key element of this process is rail access to airports to encourage economic growth. Clearly, better access to air travel can play a large role in providing better access to markets, national and international destinations, business and leisure opportunities, and to jobs. Rail is a vital ingredient in improving the travel experience and offering for air passengers. New and improved rail services and their integration with other transport modes at major airports are key to providing more sustainable travel opportunities. Airports often act as a transport hub both for air passengers and for other rail users which improves overall connectivity. Like other rail markets, it is clear that there is a growing demand for travel to airports by rail. People also desire fast, convenient and reliable rail access to central London, but direct access to non-London core economic centres is increasingly important too. In addition to the benefits of connecting air passengers to airports via the public transport network, there are also significant benefits to providing transport links between airports and key labour markets, improving accessibility of jobs and the attractiveness of the airport as an employment centre.

 

2.3.  As such, the market studies identified a number of conditional outputs (aspirations that the rail industry should seek to deliver subject to affordability and value for money) for airports. These conditional outputs are:

 

 

2.4.  The market studies also outline that the service level aspiration for rail connectivity to airports includes:

 

2.5.  To ensure that Network Rail fully understands the demand for surface access to airports it engages in detailed discussions to supplement its own economic and passenger flow analysis. For example, Network Rail has worked closely with Manchester Airport Group, which owns Stanstead Airport, to understand their aspirations for journey time improvements. Therefore, Network Rail has included provisions in the Anglia Route study (due to be published Autumn 2015) that set out how the railway can best meet these needs, while still address the other priorities in the region (e.g. commuter growth).

 

2.6.  Network Rail has been working collaboratively with airports for a number of years. The following improvements to airport journeys have either been made in recent years or are currently in development as part of the Railway Upgrade Plan:

 

2.7.  Similarly, Network Rail provided support to the three promoters of airport expansion schemes to help develop their rail access strategies and to the Airports Commission themselves in the assessment of those strategies. The options examined took account of the aspirations of each scheme promoter, as well as the opportunities and constraints of the rail network. This enabled the promoters’ surface access proposals to be broadly aligned with the long-term requirements of the rail network.

 

  1. Differing priorities – accommodating airport passengers

3.1.  The needs of airport passengers are quite different to commuting and leisure flows on the railway. The rail industry seeks to balance these trade-offs, which include:

 

 

3.2.  The tension between capacity and journey time arises, in part, from the differences in the commuter and air travel markets and what they want from the railway. The overall demand from commuters is for more trains, with more calling points. Individually, commuters want faster journey times to their terminating station. However, the aggregate impact is a desire to have each station reasonably served in peak times, because the demand arises from numerous stations across the network. This factor is exacerbated by the huge growth in rail travel across the network. In comparison, air passengers predominately take the train from the airport to a major rail terminus. Consequently, they generally prefer shorter journey times, over regularly serving each station on the route.

 

3.3.  To respond to this challenge of competing priorities an integrated approach is used, where possible, to ensure the network is utilised most efficiently. This integrated approach can be seen in the structure of the peak Gatwick Express services which balances journey time for air passengers with maximising capacity for commuters from the south coast. Airport passengers benefit from the fast service Gatwick Express offers, with a 30 minutes journey time into London. Whilst starting the service at Brighton in the peak, is advantageous to commuters and leisure travellers. This optimisation of output allows the rail industry to best meet the competing priorities of the different markets on the railway.

 

3.4.  Furthermore the integration of rail services with other transport modes at major airports is key to providing more sustainable travel opportunities and improving overall connectivity. In some cases, airports act as a transport hub both for air passengers and for other rail users. Rail is a vital component in improving the travel experience and offering for air passengers, employees and freight and in helping airports meet current and future travel demand. Recognising this, Network Rail and the wider industry are investing in better connectivity and new station improvements at airports.

 

  1. Airport passengers as a proportion of demand

4.1.  Rail access to airports is clearly an important driver for economic growth, as has been discussed above, but in the context of rail passenger demand it still represents a relatively small portion of overall rail journeys, particularly at peak times.

 

4.2.  For example, 27,300 passengers arrived into London in the high peak hour (0800 - 0900) from the Brighton Main Line, the route serving Gatwick Airport, in 2011. This is forecast to rise to 47,600 by 2043. Under an expanded two-runway scenario, Gatwick Airport Ltd’s modelling suggests that a second runway could have a net impact of up to 1,000 additional rail trips in the high-peak hour into London in 2043. Similarly, Heathrow Airport Ltd’s modelling suggests that if it were to expand, airport passengers would form less than ten per cent of total demand on the route into London Paddington in the peak periods.

 

4.3.  Therefore, while it is important to accommodate rail passengers who are travelling to airports, they do not represent a game changer for rail demand in at the busiest time of day on the train network. The increase in demand faced by the railway is driven by the commuter market, which is creating peak passenger growth as high as 5-6% annually on some routes. This said, the rail industry appreciates the wider economic value of the airport passengers.

 

  1. Summary

5.1.  The rail industry works closely with the aviation industry, Government and other partners to predict, plan and deliver rail surface access to airports across the country to support economic growth. It faces challenges of competing priorities in balancing the needs of airport travellers with other who use the network, alongside the existing pressure of increasing demand for all types of rail uses. However, through cross-industry collaboration numerous schemes to improve rail access have been delivered in the last decade and more are in development for the future.

 

5.2.  Network Rail has worked closely with the Airports Commission on its recent assessment of airport expansion proposals to make sure the surface access strategies are aligned with the wider future needs of the network.

 

October 2015