Mothballed Heathrow rail link will not be revived until airport’s finances pick up

Plans to build a £900M western rail link to Heathrow Airport have been brought to a “controlled pause” by Network Rail as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on the aviation industry, as revealed by NCE last month.

Network Rail has now confirmed that staff working on the scheme have been moved on to other projects, until Heathrow Airport Ltd (HAL) is able to commit to its share of the project’s funding.

HAL is currently unable to commit any funding to the project due to its precarious financial position as a result of passenger decline due to Covid-19.

In February HAL announced a £2bn loss for the financial year, with passenger numbers down 22M in 2020 compared to the year before.

NCE revealed in December that work on the scheme to provide west-facing direct rail access from the Great Western Main Line (GWML) to Heathrow Terminal 5 was being pushed back by at least a year. However, the indefinite delay to the project was disclosed in the minutes of the Network Rail board meeting on 20 and 21 January this year, which were published in March.

Until late last year, it was understood that the Department for Transport (DfT) had instructed Network Rail to its development consent order submission from the end of 2021 to winter 2022 as part of funding agreement negotiations.

However, just a month later Network Rail western route director Mike Gallop presented a report, which has not been publicly released, on the project to the board and confirmed the scheme was to be mothballed and staff currently working on the scheme reallocated to other projects.

Gallop told the board that the controlled pause did mean that the scheme “could be picked up again at some future point”. He added that the DfT would periodically update its business case for the Western Rail Link to Heathrow to reflect any significant changes to both the aviation and rail sectors as a result of the pandemic.

Rail industry insiders told NCE that further delays to the scheme and the impact of Covid-19 on Heathrow’s passenger number could see the scheme pushed further down the priority list.

A Department for Transport spokesperson added: “The aviation industry has faced unprecedented challenges from Coronavirus. The Government and Heathrow Airport Ltd both remain committed to taking the project forward once an appropriate financial contribution can be agreed, subject to a satisfactory business case.”

A spokesperson for HAL added: “Heathrow remains committed to the Western Rail Link, a project which will facilitate sustainable travel and regional connectivity.

"We’ve proposed a way for the scheme to progress in line with the revised timings announced in December 2020 and we continue to engage with Government and the regulator to find a solution that will unlock the project’s much needed benefits in a post-COVID world.

"The CAA and the DfT now need to work with us to agree terms that will enable this project, which has the widespread support of businesses and MPs, to move forward, despite the airport’s current challenges.”

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