by Gavin Haines, The Daily Telegraph, February 3, 2017
Cycling to Heathrow with your suitcase is about as practical as posting an anvil, but airport executives have pledged to make it easier to pedal to its terminals in a bid to beat proposed new traffic targets.
Telegraph Travel understands that a congestion charge could also be on the table, as Heathrow seeks to meet conditions set out by a draft national policy statement, which goes before Parliament today.
The Government has given its support to a third runway at Europe’s busiest airport, but insists tarmac would not be laid unless Heathrow could agree to meet new traffic, noise and pollution targets.
The policy would require Heathrow to make sure 55 per cent of passengers travelling to the airport do so by public transport (or any mode of transport that isn’t a car). According to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), that figure currently stands as 41 per cent, meaning Heathrow has a long way to go.
“We will work with the Government to deliver the target,” said Emma Gilthorpe, Heathrow expansion director. “There are different ways we can do this; the first is by making public transport easily accessible.”
Gilthorpe claims Crossrail, HS2 and improvements to the Piccadilly Line will make it easier for passengers to get to the airport without using a car. Heathrow also has the country’s biggest coach station, she says, plus the largest car share scheme in Europe, which is used by thousands of airport employees.
Perhaps most interesting, however, is that Heathrow bosses believe they can encourage passengers, as well as employees, to cycle to the airport.
“What we would like to do is to create the potential to connect the airport to the rest of the [cycle superhighway network] so you can get here and get around the airport on bicycle, which at the moment is possible but challenging,” said Gilthorpe, who herself cycles to the airport.
A congestion charge would also be considered, if passengers fail to leave their cars at home.
“If we get to the point where we think we have made a lot of change and made alternatives available then an emissions charge is something we would contemplate,” said Gilthorpe.
The draft policy, which later today will be presented to Parliament by the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, also proposes the creation of a new aviation noise watchdog and the establishment of a community compensation fund to remunerate those affected by the proposed third runway.
Grayling claims the policy will reduce the environmental and social impact of the new runway, though campaigners claim Heathrow is already in breach of air quality standards and that a third runway will pose an even greater threat to public health and the environment.
“The statement does nothing to explain how, in an area which is currently blighted by illegal levels of air pollution, such a project can realistically meet compliance with legal air quality levels,” said Anna Heslop, a lawyer for ClientEarth.
“The Government has simply kicked the can yet further down the road and assumes that the developer can come up with a scheme which miraculously fixes an air quality problem which has been ongoing for many years both around Heathrow and in central London, while allowing for the airport to expand.”
Watch | Johnson: Heathrow third runway is undeliverable 02:30
This article was written by Gavin Haines from The Daily Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
