Public transport concerns delay Gatwick's runway bid as MPs call for new Heathrow rail link

The government has delayed a decision on a second runway at Gatwick Airport, in order to seek guarantees about the proportion of passengers who would arrive by public transport.

A firm decision had been expected at the end of February, with the airport aiming to start construction later this year.

But Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander instead said she was “minded to approve” the plans, and extended a decision deadline to the end of October.

Gatwick Airport station, on the Brighton Main Line, was refurbished between 2020 and 2023 with a new concourse and platform escalators, at a cost of £249 million. The station is used by 20 million passengers a year and has direct links to 120 stations.

Gatwick Airport wants to turn its standby landing strip and taxi-way into a full runway, moving it 12 metres northwards with £2.2 billion of private investment.

It indicated that the delay was unexpected, and will now have to address concerns from the Planning Inspectorate, which had refused Gatwick’s original proposal on environmental grounds, citing the impact of expansion on public transport and on an increase in aircraft noise affecting local residents.

The airport said the scheme would bring 17,000 new jobs and an additional 100,000 flights a year. But the idea was opposed by local MPs and councils.

It has been suggested that approval by the government, overturning a planning decision, would have been vulnerable to a Judicial Review which could take years to resolve.
In 2023, the airport handled 40 million passengers. A second runway would enable 75 million travellers a year.

The Planning Inspectorate wants a legally binding guarantee from Gatwick to ensure that 54% of passengers will travel to and from the airport by public transport. The current level is 44%.

But although Gatwick can incentivise passengers to use trains or buses through car parking charges, it has no means to compel them to do so. It is unclear how Gatwick could be penalised if a legally binding target fails to be reached.

Gatwick has been trying to build a second runway for decades, and faces strong opposition on climate change grounds as well as surface access.

But expansion of the West Sussex airport always seemed more likely than a third runway at Heathrow, where the airport says it will submit proposals this summer, in a bid to receive planning permission by the end of the current Parliament.

Meanwhile, on February 28, 18 MPs called on the government to support a new rail link to Heathrow, in advance of a third runway.

The long-proposed line would involve a spur off the Great Western Main Line at Langley (east of Slough), heading largely underground to the existing station beneath Terminal Five.

Passive provision for the platforms was built into the station box, with up to four trains an hour from Reading envisaged. Reading station, rebuilt between 2009 and 2014, also has provision for the services.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Western Rail Link to Heathrow is headed by former Transport Minister and Slough MP Tan Dhesi (Labour). It also has the support of former Prime Minister Baroness Theresa May of Maidenhead, and includes three other Berkshire MPs.

Currently people travelling by rail to the airport from the west must take the train to London Paddington, then change to go back out of central London to the airport. The alternative is a bus service from Reading.

The rail link would reduce journey times by an average of 30 minutes.

Network Rail mothballed the plans during the pandemic, when a collapse in air passenger numbers meant Heathrow Airport would have been unable to contribute to the cost of construction.

The Department for Transport said that although there is no live planning application for an expansion of Heathrow, “any plans will need to take rail access into account".