EA(P)03

EDINBURGH AIRPORT RAIL LINK BILL

WRITTEN EVIDENCE FROM SCOTTISH ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT (SAPT)

1 Summary: 1.1 The Scottish Association for Public Transport (SAPT) strongly supports the concept of establishing an Airport railway station at the heart of the Scottish rail network. This will improve accessibility to most parts of for both business and leisure air travellers, strengthen the economy, encourage modal shift away from cars, and provide socially inclusive transport for those without cars. 1.2 Most major airports in England have rail links, including Heathrow (2), Gatwick, Stansted, London City (soon), Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, and Southampton. Most major European airports are also linked to the rail networks. Scotland has in the past fallen behind in public transport investment. 1.3 However, SAPT shares the concern of other organisations that the cost of the current EARL scheme, as proposed by tie, is too high, and the design of the scheme is over-complex. This could impact the timescale for the scheme, and the availability of capital funding for other desirable transport schemes in Scotland 1.4 SAPT questions, in particular, the need for two separate new double track rail lines between Haymarket and the proposed Airport station, one via , and one via . The original EARL concept was for a double track line from Roddinglaw, west of Edinburgh Park, to the Airport station; this would have involved all airport trains having to share the double track Edinburgh-Glasgow line through Edinburgh Park, also used by Bathgate, Glasgow and Stirling trains. This line is already near capacity at peak hour, see the Appendix which shows 13 trains use the Glasgow-bound platform 4 at Haymarket between 17.00 and 18.00, leaving little capacity for Airport trains. A second separate link, from Gogar to , was added by tie to the original EARL concept to provide extra capacity, allowing some airport trains to be routed via the Fife line platform 2 at Haymarket, and Gogar. 1.5 SAPT submitted proposals to tie in December 2004 that this dual approach to the Airport was unnecessarily complex and expensive, and that providing only the link from Gogar to the Airport (dropping the original Edinburgh Park-Roddinglaw - Airport link ) would not only reduce costs, but could simplify train operation by eliminating two junctions. Eliminating the proposed graded junction at Roddinglaw west of Edinburgh Park, and the line from there to the junction at with the proposed Gogar-Airport line, should reduce costs substantially. Section 2 shows further details of our proposed amendment 1.6 SAPT held a meeting with tie on 28th March 2006 to discuss our proposal, and we have now received an initial assessment of our proposed amendment. This is summarised in Section 3 below. 1.7 SAPT also suggested in December 2004, as a lower cost fall-back alternative to the Edinburgh Airport railway station, a peoplemover link from Gogar to the Airport, giving a connection from the Edinburgh-Fife line at a new interchange railway station at Gogar. This has not been assessed by tie, and is described in Section 4 below.

2 EARL REDUCED COST STRATEGY 2.1 The current EARL plan envisages two rail lines to the Airport station, from Gogar on the Edinburgh-Fife line north of , and from the Edinburgh-Glasgow line at Roddinglaw, west of Edinburgh Park, as shown below.

To Fife, Aberdeen, Perth, Inverness

To Glasgow Stirling Airport South Gyle

Edinburgh To Bathgate Park New rail link To Edinburgh

Diagram 1: Current proposal for Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) 2.2 The perceived need for two separate double-track routes to the airport is based on the high frequency of planned train services, and the difficulty of quadrupling the route through Edinburgh Park. We understand trains per hour (tph) planned over each section of route are as in the table below: tph Through Through Through Edinburgh South Edinburgh Park Gyle Airport Edinburgh-Glasgow 4 4 2 Queen St Edinburgh-Dunblane 2 2 2 Edinburgh-Bathgate 4 4 (planned) Edinburgh-Aberdeen 1 1 1 Edinburgh- 1 1 1 Perth/Inverness Edinburgh-Dunfermline- 2 2 2 Fife Edinburgh-Kirkcaldy- 2 2 Fife Total 16 10 6 8

2.3 Without the second Airport line via South Gyle, 14 trains per hour would be routed through Edinburgh Park. This mix of 14 non-stop and stopping trains at Edinburgh Park would worsen reliability and leave no spare capacity for any expansion of train frequency in the future. 2.4 The alternative SAPT strategy would be to route all Edinburgh Airport and Fife trains via South Gyle and Gogar, with a link to Edinburgh Airport, as shown below:

To Fife, Aberdeen, Perth, Inverness

Diagram 2 To Glasgow Lower cost Stirling option Airport South Gyle

To Edinburgh

Edinburgh Park to Bathgate

New rail link

With this plan, the proposed traffic through each of the sections of route would be as shown: tph Through Through Through Edinburgh South Edinburgh Park Gyle Airport Edinburgh-Glasgow 4 2 2 2 Queen St Edinburgh-Dunblane 2 2 2 Edinburgh-Bathgate 4 4 (planned) Edinburgh-Aberdeen 1 1 1 Edinburgh- 1 1 1 Perth/Inverness Edinburgh- 2 2 2 Dunfermline-Fife Edinburgh-Kirkcaldy- 2 2 Fife Total 16 6 10 8

2.5 It should be possible to operate 10 trains per hour on the line from Haymarket to Gogar. 2.6 This strategy would eliminate the need, and cost, for the double track line and associated junctions from Roddinglaw to the Airport. Tram Line 2 will link the Airport to Edinburgh Park and Gyle shopping centre, and should be designed to provide an integrated transport interchange with the railway station at Edinburgh Airport. This will allow rail passengers from Fife to reach Edinburgh Park 2.7 We hope that, if a simplified lower cost EARL scheme, as proposed by SAPT, can be made to work, the prospects for funding EARL and other public transport schemes within realistic timescales will be greatly improved.

3 tie RESPONSE TO SAPT AMENDMENTS (11/5/06) 3.1 A brief study commissioned by tie of the SAPT suggested amendments has concluded that it is possible to create a timetable for the SAPT infrastructure option, and that there is no strong reason to rule out the SAPT scheme on performance grounds 3.2 Eliminating the Roddinglaw-Ingliston link to the Airport would, according to the tie Cost Report, reduce the capital cost of the EARL project by £45 million. (This cost is cheaper than "normal" railway works as it is classified as Greenfield construction, though the Roddinglaw graded junction is constructed off the Edinburgh-Glasgow main line) 3.3 Depending on detailed timetable issues, with the SAPT proposal it may be necessary to redesign the proposed Gogar Junction to provide multiple track through South Gyle station. If proved to be necessary, the cost of this would be around £22.5 million 3.4 The SAPT proposal would not give a rail link between the Airport and Edinburgh Park, though SAPT have pointed out that the Edinburgh Tram Line 2, also promoted by tie, will provide a higher frequency service between the Airport and a number of locations in Edinburgh Park, albeit giving a slower journey time than by train 3.5 As the half-hourly Edinburgh-Dunblane train service would be routed via the Airport, but not Edinburgh Park, under the SAPT proposal, direct services from Edinburgh Park to Dunblane, Bridge of Allan, Larbert, Camelon and Falkirk Grahamston would be restricted to a peak hour service each way. However, an additional half-hourly service is planned from Edinburgh Park using the Edinburgh-Linlithgow-Polmont-Falkirk High- Glasgow trains, allowing journeys from Edinburgh Park at off-peak times to Stirling and Dunblane to be made by changing at Polmont (or by changing at the Airport to/from Tram Line 2). 3.6 SAPT suggest that a high quality interchange between Tram Line 2 and the rail network, either at Edinburgh Airport or Gogar/ Gyle, is essential to widen the range of destinations in West Edinburgh that can be reached by rail from Fife. Good interchange between rail, underground and tram is a fundamental objective of public transport in major European cities including London. Interchange between train and tram should reduce the impact of not providing a direct rail link from Edinburgh Park to the airport. 3.7 In conclusion, we suggest that, while the simplified SAPT proposal would impose some restrictions compared with the full tie EARL scheme, these would have to be balanced against the reduction in capital costs, currently estimated at £45 million.

4 GOGAR PEOPLEMOVER ALTERNATIVE 4.1 SAPT supports the direct EARL route from Gogar to Edinburgh Airport as amended in Section 2 above, but suggests that a peoplemover link from a new interchange station on the Edinburgh-Fife railway, together with the associated Carlowrie curve for Glasgow and Stirling trains, should be assessed as a back-up option should the EARL project not go ahead due to financial or other constraints 4.2 TRANSform Scotland has suggested, as an alternative to EARL, a Turnhouse station on the Edinburgh-Fife line, with a peoplemover link from Turnhouse to the airport terminal building. This Turnhouse option was evaluated and rejected by tie, partly due to the physical difficulty of establishing a satisfactory Turnhouse-airport peoplemover link 4.3 A variant on the Turnhouse option, based on an interchange station at Gogar instead of Turnhouse, was suggested by SAPT in December 2004. This would involve a slightly longer 1.2 mile peoplemover link from a new interchange station at Gogar to the airport. This option has not been evaluated by tie. There should be few physical problems establishing a Gogar-Edinburgh Airport peoplemover as this could run alongside the route proposed for Edinburgh Tram Line 2.

Appendix

Departures from Edinburgh 17.00 - 18.00 hrs ( current timetable spring 2006)

Via Haymarket E&G platform 4 Via Haymarket Fife platform 2 17.00 Glasgow Queen St 17.05 Aberdeen / Dyce 17.03 Dunblane 17.10 Fife Circle via Dunfermline 17.15 Glasgow Queen St 17.14 Carnoustie 17.18 Bathgate 17.27 Perth 17.21 Motherwell via Shotts 17.40 Inverness 17.24 Stirling 17.50 Fife Circle via Kirkcaldy 17.30 Glasgow Queen St 17.55 Fife Circle via Dunfermline 17.33 Dunblane 17.35 Glasgow Central via Carstairs 17.45 Glasgow Queen St 17.48 Bathgate 17.52 Manchester 17.56 Glasgow Central via Shotts 13 trains (15 with Bathgate upgrade) 7 trains

Development of a high speed Edinburgh-Glasgow Central service ("Caledonian Express") could increase the traffic through Haymarket platform 4.

But there is spare capacity on the Fife lines (platform 2) to accommodate trains from Edinburgh to Stirling and Glasgow Queen St via Edinburgh Airport if these are routed in future via Gogar.

Issued May 11th 2006 by: Dr. John McCormick Chairman Scottish Association for Public Transport