Forum Topic

Heathrow Southern Rail Link

Hopefully the fact that this is now being discussed again indicates that it is more than a pipe dream. However, I see no mention in the article of when we might expect to see it. Does anyone have any insight into this? Heathrow should be willing to cover the cost as it would make reaching the airport much much easier for a lot of people under the flight path.

Andrew OSullivan ● 1109d13 Comments

There always was a railway link down the Colne Valley from West Drayton to Staines and it's often been suggested that it could be used to give access to and from Heathrow.  You never know!

Peter Evans ● 1109d

Rail projects cost £Bs so until there is some agreement about who will pay for it, it will remain a pipe dream.From what I remember, one of the challenges is the capacity on the existing lines and if that was increased, they'd need to close the level crossings around Barnes and Mortlake.

Michael Robinson ● 1109d

It is a great idea.  However, not sure whether it will happen in the next 20 years and as Michael has posted already there may be capacity issue which mean it is not practical.However any reasonable idea which has the potential to remove traffic on roads to Heathrow should be considered seriously and this is definitely a better than merely reasonable idea

Justin Stephenson ● 1109d

I may have misremembered, but I think when this was being discussed previously, because of capacity limitations on the lines, a 'rob Peter to pay Paul' approach was being discussed for the Heathrow service.  That is, in order to run services to Heathrow, they would reduce service to some of the existing destinations served by the lines.Understandably, that went down like a lead balloon with people who used those existing services.However, this was pre-Covid and Runway 3 was still on the cards and I don't know how the landscape has changed since then.

Michael Robinson ● 1108d

This is also half remembered but I think one of the issues was bottlenecks going into Waterloo but work is being done on that.The other is, as you mention level crossings, which also creates problems for the West London Orbital proposal. Perhaps improved signalling technology could reduce the amount of time barriers need to be down for a train passing. This is something that probably has to be looked at if London wants to boost its suburban train services.

Francis Rowe ● 1108d

I have bumped the discussion from twelve years ago as this idea has been long-discussed without any obvious action taking place.

Richard Greenhough ● 1108d

Signalling technology doesn't change laws of physics and the time and distance a train needs to stop.The challenge here is for road traffic, not rail, as the solution for rail is pretty straightforward - close the level crossing and provide a bridge or underpass for foot/cycle traffic.That is what was proposed for Bollo Lane and Churchfield Rd for the West London Orbital.

Michael Robinson ● 1108d

France is building 120 new miles of track and 68 new stations on their metro. Meanwhile HS2 may not go to Euston but stop at Old Oak Common where everybody would get off and change to the Elizabethan line. Other countries get on with their transport projects, we only talk it seems to me.

Nicholas Beard ● 1108d

My hazy recollection of the Network Rail Feasibility Study is that getting more capacity through the throat into Waterloo is prohibitively expensive. The Heathrow connection could work with the level crossings by having 2 trains an hour routed via Richmond and 2 trains an hour routed via Hounslow.The downside would be the loss of the direct services to Weybridge and the direct loop trains from the Hounslow corridor to the Richmond corridor would vanish.I would agree that signalling might improve level crossing timings. My experience in Isleworth is that the crossing closes before the train to Waterloo arrives at the station. It surely does not need to close until the train is ready to depart ?

Tim Henderson ● 1107d

My recollection is hazy too but I believe that the justification for many of the weekend closures of recent years was work to improve the capacity of the bottleneck outside Waterloo. This of course may have just been a marginal improvement.On delays at level crossings, I agree that it seems unlikely that improvements can't be made. I have been at the Bollo Lane crossing when the barrier has come down, and it has been at least two minutes before the train passes and then it is not raised immediately because there is an even longer wait for another train to come through. By this stage queues of traffic are reaching back towards the other level crossing.I'm very sceptical that there is no way of reducing the delays at these crossings which would enable more trains to operate on the line.

Francis Rowe ● 1100d

Francis, the level crossings don't delay trains.  There is no issue running more trains through a level crossing, it just means the level crossing is down a longer time for road traffic.  Eventually it reaches the point when it is down so much it is pointless keeping it open for road traffic.The West London Orbital proposal means both level crossings on Bollo Lane would be used.  The existing Overground uses the southern crossing and West London Orbital would use the northern crossing that connects with the Hounslow loop line and is only occasionally used for freight at the moment.As mentioned, the proposal is to close Bollo Lane and Churchfield Rd to motor traffic and install pedestrian/cyclists bridges however the project needs £Bs and funding doesn't appear to be confirmed at the moment.

Michael Robinson ● 1100d

I can't remember anything on capacity other than bringing the "Waterloo International" platforms back into regular use and the move to have 10 car trains. I think there are still only four tracks on the Windsor lines and this limited movements to 22 or 24 trains an hour even with the improved signalling. Doing something significant to the throat into Waterloo was, I recall, one of the reasons that TfL put a big cost on the surface access costs for Heathrow expansion (that wasn't recognised by the Airports Commission or Government).

Tim Henderson ● 1100d

Even if nothing can be done about boosting capacity on the line, it would be a significant gain to have a rail service from the south of Chiswick to Heathrow. Perhaps the solution is not to serve Heathrow during weekday rush hour to avoid tourist filling up trains to Waterloo before they reach local stations.

Francis Rowe ● 1098d