HS2 Heathrow Link still provisionally planned?

[PLY2AYS]

A former colleague found an interesting snippet from the WON week 53 in TSRs, which included Future site of Copthall Junction.

Does this mean the provisional plan for a direct link to Heathrow from HS2 under Denham are still on the cards?

I suspect that this is to ensure future-proofing, rather than active plans. But does raise questions about what other provisions are still in place for future-proofing.

Please see below the photo I received of Weekly Operating Notice for Week 53.

 

[The Planner]

Copthall is on the Chiltern line for another engineering siding for HS2. Its not anything to do with a Heathrow link.

 

[PLY2AYS]

Copthall is on the Chiltern line for another engineering siding for HS2. Its not anything to do with a Heathrow link.

Knew you’d be the one to set me right. Thank you! I’ll just DM in future
Think that clears this thread up! Many thanks!

 

[edwin_m]

Passive provision for a Heathrow junction was deleted from the HS2 design, probably a decade ago. Basically no way it would make sense, considering only about 8% of predicated HS2 London passengers wanted to go there. If say 1.5 trains per hour were sent to Heathrow instead of Euston then many Heathrow passengers would still be better to get a Euston train and change at OOC. And that's before you try to fit a 400m station somewhere under or near a very congested airport.

 

[PLY2AYS]

Passive provision for a Heathrow junction was deleted from the HS2 design, probably a decade ago. Basically no way it would make sense, considering only about 8% of predicated HS2 London passengers wanted to go there. If say 1.5 trains per hour were sent to Heathrow instead of Euston then many Heathrow passengers would still be better to get a Euston train and change at OOC. And that's before you try to fit a 400m station somewhere under or near a very congested airport.

Agreed, but that is looking at it from a very London-centric point of view and not from the perspective of inbound passengers to other parts of the UK, and other parts of the UK who may wish to fly from Heathrow.

That being said, given that the Heathrow redesign/expansion is very likely to go ahead, some rejigging of rail infrastructure to suit it would be ideal!

 

[MarkyT]

Passive provision for a Heathrow junction was deleted from the HS2 design, probably a decade ago. Basically no way it would make sense, considering only about 8% of predicated HS2 London passengers wanted to go there. If say 1.5 trains per hour were sent to Heathrow instead of Euston then many Heathrow passengers would still be better to get a Euston train and change at OOC. And that's before you try to fit a 400m station somewhere under or near a very congested airport.

Also, wherever in the Heathrow complex this 400m behemoth was sited, it couldn't plausibly serve all terminals within walking distance so would almost certainly require a further shuttle transfer for many passengers, perhaps all if the station, as likely, ended up on the periphery of the airport. OOC, as a 'remote terminal' with fast and frequent direct links to all terminals, solves that while not adding very much running time and allows all HS2 London trains to be airport trains.

 

[Bald Rick]

Agreed, but that is looking at it from a very London-centric point of view and not from the perspective of inbound passengers to other parts of the UK, and other parts of the UK who may wish to fly from Heathrow.

That being said, given that the Heathrow redesign/expansion is very likely to go ahead, some rejigging of rail infrastructure to suit it would be ideal!

What proportion of passengers using Heathrow require to travel to/from places served by HS2 services? That is the key statistic to understand whether such a link would be worthwhile.

 

[edwin_m]

Agreed, but that is looking at it from a very London-centric point of view and not from the perspective of inbound passengers to other parts of the UK, and other parts of the UK who may wish to fly from Heathrow.

That being said, given that the Heathrow redesign/expansion is very likely to go ahead, some rejigging of rail infrastructure to suit it would be ideal!

As I posted above, the number of "inbound passengers to other parts of the UK and from other parts of the UK who may wish to fly from Heathrow" was what they calculated, with the important proviso that it was only the parts of the UK most easily accessed via HS2. And the number was found to be too low to justify building a link, especially when a convenient connection would be available from OOC.

 

[Topological]

Also, wherever in the Heathrow complex this 400m behemoth was sited, it couldn't plausibly serve all terminals within walking distance so would almost certainly require a further shuttle transfer for many passengers, perhaps all if the station, as likely, ended up on the periphery of the airport. OOC, as a 'remote terminal' with fast and frequent direct links to all terminals, solves that while not adding very much running time and allows all HS2 London trains to be airport trains.

Fully agree.

Whilst I like the idea of a HS2 link to the new bigger Terminal 5, I can see that the OOC connection will be better. OOC comes with the additional benefit of having all long-distance GWR trains too. OOC is a very strong piece of planning.