A Little More Information

The Airtrack Proposal:

To build (rebuild) a railway line from Heathrow Terminal 5 across Staines Moor to Staines, where there will be links to the Waterloo - Reading and Waterloo - Guildford lines. This would allow fast direct trains from Heathrow to Waterloo, Reading and Guildford.  

Airtrack anticipates 2 services per hour on each route with maybe only one in peak hours on the Guildford route. These would be fast services stopping only at a few stations. It is anticipated that Chertsey and Staines will have direct services to Heathrow, but Egham won't. Since the platforms at Chertsey are not long enough, Chertsey station will probably need to be rebuilt, but Airtrack are not planning to do that.

The Chord:

The new line will naturally curve into Staines heading London-bound. Just before meeting the existing line it will bifurcate, with one branch heading into Staines Station, and the other joining the westbound line.  

The Route:

The westbound line then crosses the Thames, through Thorpe Road Level Crossing, through Pooley Green Crossing, through Egham Station Crossing, through  Prune Hill Crossing at the western end of Egham, before reaching Virginia Water, where there is a road bridge. It then splits, one line heading to Reading and one to Guildford.  

This means that two thirds of all the Airtrack trains, (all the Reading ones, and all the Guildford ones), will go through Egham, which has no tunnels or bridges across the railway line. We will get 8 additional trains per hour on top of the 8 or 9 we have at present.

Network Rail:

Network Rail own the railway line, including the level crossings. Road users are permitted by the grace and kindness of Network Rail to cross their property, at designated level crossings, not as a right-of-way, but as a favour and subject to Network Rail's rules, at times and on occasions as Network Rail should  choose to permit. So if they don't want to cooperate there is not a tiny little thing we can do to force them, unless we can persuade 330 MPs to write a new law (link to the legal explanations).

Level Crossings:

As mentioned above, these are not Rights Of Way, they belong to Network Rail and we taxpayers can only use them if Network Rail lets us (link to the legal explanation).  

BAA:

BAA own Heathrow Airport, (under Heathrow Airports Limited, or HAL for short). They are are in turn owned by a Spanish company who took out huge loans to buy BAA, thinking they would made enough money to pay off the loans and make a profit. BAA may therefore shortly be owned by the government, or by the banks who lent them the money. 

BAA ran the original public consultation, but Heathrow Airports Ltd are the name on the TWA application.   There is some question as to which corporate body will take ultimate responsibility for the project.

Heathrow Expansion:

BAA want to build a new runway north of the M4. The Government approves but has promised the people who don't approve that there will be compensating environmental improvements, including improved public transport to the airport. The Tories have said Runway 3 won't happen if they win the next election.

The Banks (or someone else):

The banks will have to find the money to build Airtrack, because BAA don't have the money. BAA are only paying for the preliminary work to get the project to the stage where people can decide whether it is worth investing in. That means the initial consultation exercise, the feasibility studies,  the environmental assessment and the TWA Application process. Who will own the track once it is built and who will run the trains - we don't know yet (and possibly no one knows)

The Money:

BAA (Heathrow Airports Ltd in fact)  have estimated the project cost at   £ 673 million.   They have not said how much they can contribute towards this,  but they have budged on £ 351 million for all strategic rail access improvements up to 2015, and £ 230 million is already promised to Crossrail.

So it's not clear where the money is going to come from. 

The tunnel at Pooley Green will probably cost between  £ 10 and £ 30 million.  It's not clear where that is going to come from either.  (but if you can afford £ 673 million, whats another 20 or so?)

Magna Carta: 

Magna Carta was sealed by King John in 1215 at Runnymede.

One of its clauses,   (No. 33 ) says that "Fish-weirs should be removed from all rivers in England"  - or in today's money, navigable rivers must not be dammed for private profit - because us free-born englishmen-and-women have a right to travel freely.   But I wouldn't quote that to BAA, or they might mention Clause 23...

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