Heathrow Airtrack
| Heathrow Airtrack (proposed) | |
|---|---|
 |
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The current Terminal 5 station which would have formed part of Airtrack
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| Overview | |
| Type | Urban rail / Airport rail link proposal |
| System | National Rail |
| Status | Proposal only |
| Locale | London, England, UK |
| Termini |
Heathrow Terminal 5 London Waterloo Reading Woking Guildford |
| Stations | 13 |
| Operation | |
| Owner |
Heathrow Airport Holdings (railway tracks around Heathrow Airport) Network Rail (remainder of the network) |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) |
Heathrow Airtrack is a proposed railway link in west London, England, UK. The line, as proposed by BAA, would have run from Heathrow Terminal 5 into central London and across the suburbs of south-west London. In October 2011, Wandsworth Council announced a revised plan called Airtrack-Lite.
The BAA proposal would have provided direct rail services from the airport to London Waterloo, Reading and Guildford, and offered an alternative route to the existing rail routes to Heathrow (namely Heathrow Express, Heathrow Connect and the Piccadilly line). The scheme, estimated to cost around £673 million, In April 2011, BAA announced that it was not proceeding with the project at the present time, citing the unavailability of government subsidy and other priorities for Heathrow.
Airtrack proposes reopening a section of the former West Drayton to Staines railway line, roughly following the southern route of the line to a junction with the Staines to Windsor Line and a reinstatement of the Staines West chord.
Heathrow Terminal 5 has two safeguarded heavy rail platforms for use by a west-facing connection to the National Rail network, which would be utilised by Airtrack. The original proposal for the AirTrack link included a new station, called Staines High Street railway station, built near the site of the former station of the same name, but that plan was omitted from the revised proposals in the second public consultation, published on 20 October 2008.
A new rolling stock depot on the site of the former marshalling yards at Feltham is included in the proposal.
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