The west-facing rail connection from the Great Western Main Line to Heathrow Airport is the latest casualty following the announcement of a £22 billion ‘black hole’ in national budgets by chancellor Rachel Reeves on 29 July.
Railway budgets already axed in a bid to save more than £2 billion of ‘unfunded pledges’ in Transport alone include the Restoring Your Railway fund. This decision has dismayed a number of local councils who were backing plans to reopen lines like the Portishead branch in Bristol and new stations in many places, including Haxby in North Yorkshire, Aldridge in the West Midlands and Devizes in Wiltshire.
But the plan to give Heathrow a westerly railway connection, which was first unveiled 12 years ago, still has ‘wide cross-party and local support’, according to Slough’s Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi. Mr Dhesi was shadow rail minister between April 2020 and September 2023 while Labour was in opposition, before he was replaced by Stephen Morgan.
The link would have started from a junction near Iver and have been 6.5km long, allowing trains from places like Oxford, Bristol and Cardiff to serve the airport directly.
Mr Dhesi has not abandoned his support for the line, and has set up an All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Western Rail Link.
During a Commons debate about the project on 30 April this year, he said: ‘The scheme, which has been identified as a nationally significant infrastructure project by the National Infrastructure Commission, promises to decrease train travel times, offer a consistent service of trains in each direction, vastly improve connections and bring destinations within the “golden hour” for foreign direct investors.’
In the wake of the election, he added: ‘Since the Conservative government promised to build it over a decade ago, this nationally significant infrastructure project has been beset by delays and funding challenges, yet receives wide cross-party and local support from businesses and residents.
‘With a new Labour government, I know it is steadfast in its commitment to economic growth, and enhancing our infrastructure and rail connectivity, alongside tackling the climate crisis.
‘I look forward to future discussions on how we can improve all transport services for my Slough constituents.’