A SUPPORTER and promoter of High Speed Rail has called for a new railway to be built linking London and Stansted Airport.
Jim Steer, founder and director of global transport consultancy Steer Davies Gleave and also a director of the HS2 lobby group Greengauge21, said that a new line between the airport and London Liverpool Street could reduce journey times to less than 30 minutes.
He told delegates at the 14th Stansted Airport Transport Forum that improvements would also benefit the East of England and its economy by providing faster trains and new direct services to key destinations in the region such as Canary Wharf, Cambridge, Colchester, Norwich and Ipswich.
He said: “A new rail line between London Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport and onwards to the east and north would significantly improve access times to around 26 minutes to the airport. London - particularly east London - will see significant economic and population growth over the next twenty to thirty years. The same is true of the corridor between London and Cambridge. To support this growth, we urgently need a strategic plan for housing and transport infrastructure. Rail infrastructure development, centred on Stansted, makes good sense and would increase the airport's competitiveness and have wider economic benefits for the East of England region.”
Mr Steer’s comments have came in the same week that the Chancellor George Osborne and Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced a taskforce to study options for improving London-Stansted-Cambridge rail links, and also as the DfT published its procurement notice for the next Greater Anglia franchise, which includes an aspiration to reduce the London-Norwich journey time to 90 minutes.
Stansted Airport managing director Andrew Harrison said that faster rail services to the airport were 'vital'. He added: "Unlike other London airports, Stansted has spare runway capacity today and significant room to grow in the future."
The existing line to Stansted was opened by British Rail in 1991.