My support for AirTrack - but with conditions

I've just sent the letter below to the Department of Transport, which has been consulting on BAA's application to begin work to create the Heathrow AirTrack shuttle rail service.

AirTrack is planned to run from Waterloo to Heathrow, creating a south of the river direct link to our main airport for the first time. AirTrack is not connected in any way with the deeply unpopular and misguided plans for a third runway at Heathrow: it should proceed when, as I am working towards, these plans finally bite the dust.

But my support for AirTrack is provisional on two crucial factors. First, the service must serve Putney - at present the nearest stations it will stop at are Clapham Junction and Richmond. Putney Station serves a much larger area, and is far easier to reach for a larger number of people, than Richmond. So AirTrack must stop here.

And second, BAA must contribute towards the costs of station expansion that are currently stalling somewhat because South West Trains, who manage the station as part of their contract to run rail services, are struggling to find the investment needed.

The beauty of AirTrack is that 90% of the track needed to operate the system is already laid: the only new track needed is a spur between Staines and Heathrow. In times of financial restraint, projects like this that need relatively little investment but which dramatically improve public transport are exactly what the government should be looking to invest in.

If you agree with my ideas, you can help by signing my Putney4AirTrack petition online here.

Here's my letter to the Secretary of State:

AirTrack comes a step closer to reality

AirTrack - the plan to create a south of the river shuttle service to Heathrow airport - came a step closer to reality earlier this month when BAA asked the government to proceed with the scheme.

I'm a big supporter of AirTrack: its a major hassle for south Londoners to get to Heathrow and this scheme will make it much easier and take pressure off the Paddington shuttle service. What's more it's value for money: it'll run along existing track for 95% of its length - the only new line needing to be laid will be a spur between the airport and Staines.

In fact the only downside of the existing AirTrack plan is that it won't stop at Putney - but that's something I'm campaigning for and, as MP, will push hard for. In that I hope we can count on the support of the Council, who have been supportive of the plans as well.

And let's be clear: South London deserves AirTrack irrespective of the expansion of Heathrow. It's right that as many journeys to the airport as possible take place on public transport but without such a link doing so is a nightmare too far - on top of an already stressful experience.

You can find out more about AirTrack here (the BAA site) or here (the AirTrack Forum) - I also first wrote about the idea way back at the beginning of 2008 here.

May 01: The choice on transport

On Monday Labour launched our transport manifesto for London for the next four years.
Transport is the area that has been most transformed by Labour's eight years in charge of London:

• Buses have been transformed
• The Tube is slowly but surely beginning to benefit from the billions invested
• We've taken control of some of the worst performing train services to creat London Overground
• The number of cyclists in London has never been higher
• London's great town squares like Trafalgar Square are once again being returned to pedestrians
• We've revolutionised paying for public transport journeys by introducing the Oystercard
• The congestion charge has reduced traffic gridlock in the city without the dire displacement around the edges the Tories scaremongered would happen
• And the income from the congestion zone has made it possible for everything else listed above to be provided by Labour without crippling fare rises.

That's what we've already done - but we're nowhere near done. Here's what you'll get by re-electing Labour for another term of office on 01 May:

• A brand new London bike-hire scheme
• Free public transport travel for our service veterans
• Pensioners with Freedom Passes able to use them any time of the day
• More convenient ways of paying for Oyster and the congestion charge
• Cheaper fares than the Tories will saddle you with: each bus journey will be 15p cheaper with Labour
• The expansion of London Overground

Coupled with the campaigns I'm running for:

• Extensive improvements to Putney Station
• Setting up the AirTrack network connecting Waterloo with Heathrow
• More capacity on local train services by returning the six unused Waterloo platforms vacated by Eurostar
• And fully accessible East Putney and Southfields Stations

...these are bold, enterprising, ambitious and achievable plans to make London an Olympic City by 2012.

I don't like talking about what things were like under the Tories - it was such a long time ago that they messed things up so badly, after all. But on transport, even those barely old enough to remember the underfunded, run-down Conservative years have the scars of the dreadful mess they made of London Transport seared into their memories. Don't let the Tories take us back down that tunnel again.

Vote for Ken Livingstone as Mayor and give us a Labour voice on the Assembly for the first time ever by backing local Assembly candidate Leonie Cooper.

You can read Ken's Transport for London manifesto here.

New edition of The Putney Paper - hot off the presses

We've just taken delivery of the new edition of The Putney Paper - copies of which should start arriving through doors across the constituency in the next days and weeks.

Because it's such an important issue locally, we've devoted this edition to transport. Our headline story is the long-overdue revamp of Putney mainline station - something Labour has been campaigning on for years and years (it was one of the demands of my Save Putney High Street campaign, for example).

Inside, I set out my views on Heathrow expansion - the editorial I've written can be read here - and the paper goes on to ask important questions about just how opposed to Heathrow the Conservatives really are.

I also champion my Putney4AirTrack campaign: the proposal to provide a Waterloo to Heathrow service running through Putney: an infrastructure project that should go ahead regardless of the decision on Heathrow expansion.

And elsewhere in the paper I report on Southfields' station's Olympic lift - the fact that the station is finally getting a passenger lift because it is an Olympics Station for 2012 (and not, as some Conservatives are dishonestly claiming, a result of anything they've achieved!), and on the latest bus performance indicators.

Plus a round-up of all the local news from around the constituency and your chance to have a say.

You can read the online edition of The Putney Paper here.

AirTrack

Today, I'm launching my Putney4AirTrack campaign.

AirTrack is a proposal for a rail service between Heathrow and Waterloo. The beauty of the idea is that 96% of the track for this service already exists so it's an incredibly affordable infrastructure scheme - all that's required is for a spur of just 4km between Staines and Heathrow itself to be built.

The plan is for AirTrack services to run every 10 minutes in both directions; with end-to-end rail journeys of between 35 and 45 minutes. The service is forecast to reduce car journeys by 5,000 in the morning rush hour alone.

It's such a great scheme that it really is surprising that it hasn't been done already. The concern is that AirTrack appears to being linked with development of a third runway at Heathrow - but there really is no reason it has to be: AirTrack is a stand-alone viable scheme that will provide a vital south-of-the-river service to complement and relieve the Piccadilly Line.

The other big issue for us locally is that at present, the service isn't planned to stop at Putney: the nearest station to us will be Clapham Junction. Obviously, it's important for the service to get to and from Heathrow quickly, but Putney is the largest population area between Clapham Junction and Staines, with a large number of Heathrow users.

To support my Putney4AirTrack campaign, click here.

For a larger version of the AirTrack map above, click here.

And for more on the AirTrack proposal, click here.