Access to Airports: A Comparison between the New APM to London City Airport with the Heavy Rail Links to Other London Airports

Abstract

Following the successful completion of the extension of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Lewisham, there is now a proposal to create a new APM extension serving London City Airport, with opening planned for 2004. London now has a wide variety of rail-based means of access to its airports, the most recent (1998) being the Heathrow express heavy rail link to Paddington, following the long established service from Victoria to Gatwick airport, and the more recent (1991) link to Stansted airport from Liverpool Street, and the new (1999) feeder bus service serving Luton airport from Luton parkway station. All these links, and the airports served, differ in character, with Stansted and Luton serving mainly low-cost and charter services, whilst Heathrow remains the major hub, with the high speed 15 minute service to central London serving as the world’s most expensive ride for the distance covered, and Gatwick second to Heathrow, also having a heavy rail connection every 15 minutes. This paper assesses the role of the various rail-based means of gaining access to airports, and the potential role of APMs in serving this market. Background. The European trend in new airport links is towards the creation of non-stop high speed links from city centres, as plainly this is attractive to business users. Just as Heathrow now has a high speed connection, supplementing the London underground service that provides a slower service with more frequent stops and better local connections, so also there is a proposal for a new high speed link from Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport. Links to the national rail network have been created at Frankfurt, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. However, an equally important trend has been towards policies for reducing road congestion around airports by encouraging the use of public transport by airport users and workers, and U.K. airports have targets for the increase in the proportion of all trips to the airport by public transport. London city airport was built as a private venture, not hoping to rival Heathrow in size, but to take advantage of its location close to the City and to London Docklands and offer short haul flights primarily to the business traveller. Its early success was very limited, but usage is now increasing, and a link is now to be built to the Docklands Light Railway, which is developing into a network for East London. The City centre to airport travel times now offered by the Heathrow express have taken away from London City Airport much of the advantage offered by its close location to business centres. However, the provision of an APM. with frequent stops in the Docklands area should both restore