Airport Capacity

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown Excerpts

Tuesday 25th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am grateful to the Doorkeeper, who was beetling around the Chamber looking for the wallet of some hapless fellow, poor chap. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

I am glad to say that I have not lost my wallet, Mr Speaker.

I warmly welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement, but if Heathrow is to meet its emissions targets a large number of people will have to be persuaded to travel by rail rather than car, so will he say something about the western rail link proposals? Will he also consider providing fast rail links between all London’s airports?

[Chris Grayling]

Both the western and the southern rail links are part of the schedule for Network Rail’s future projects. Heathrow airport is due to pay part of the cost of those links, since they involve broader issues than this project alone, but as a result of today’s decision their construction will need to be accelerated. Links between airports are not currently being considered, but if the economy of the south-east continues to grow and develop, they may well be considered in the future.