Airport Railways – A Global Survey

Presenter: Andrew Sharp

Meeting Held at Shenfield Parish Hall

Our events-organiser Steve Hewitt likes to provide a varied programme; accordingly we had Andrew Sharp, International Air Rail Organisation policy advisor to present an overview of these links.

This is a big topic, so it was good that the presentation was well-structured, under the following headings: –Introduction, Six types of links, Case studies.

The introduction covered the benefits and problems of intermodality, planning issues and the work of his organisation IARO.This organisation aims to: – spread world class best practice; disseminate good practice ideas; provide information; research solutions in common problem areas.An “airport railway paradox” has been identified whereby there are ‘locals’ who live in the catchment area and tend to know the transport system, whereas ‘visitors’ don’t know the system and have a city centre destination.This is seen to be a ‘challenge for the marketing team’ and can lead to conflicts between the needs of commuters and air travellers.

Andrew gave many examples of best and sub-optimal practice within the six types of provision: -1) High speed dedicated links (airport expresses); 2) High speed networks; 3) Regional links; 4) Suburban, metro and light rapid transit; 5) People movers and shuttle buses; (6) Cargo.

One of the most interesting developments in intermodality has been ‘Mode sharing’, in which apassenger may fly from the USA to Paris say and then continue by rail to e.g. Brussels by train on the same ticket in a fairly seamless way.Long haul by plane, short haul by train. Some airport expresses offer an in-town check-in.

An interesting question is who should plan and pay for provision – the public or private sector, or some species of combined effort? Evidently, 42% of European airports make a loss or are subsidised in some way.

A most interesting topic all round, go to www.iaro for more information.