Written evidence from the Airport Operators
Association (HSR 176)
1. The Airports Operators Association (AOA) is
the trade association that represents the interests of UK airports.
Our membership comprises some 70 airport companies, representing
the nation's international and major regional airports in addition
to many serving community, business and general aviation.
2. This submission relates to the Transport Select
Committee's call for evidence into the strategic case for High
Speed Rail (HSR), under section two: "How does HSR fit with
the Government's transport policy objectives". It specifically
addresses question 3 in this section: "What are the implications
for domestic aviation?".
SUMMARY OF
KEY POINTS
3. The AOA supports investment in all types of
public transport infrastructure, including aviation, rail and
others. The benefits to business and individuals of better transport
infrastructure are well documented. In addition to providing more
infrastructure, HSR offers the opportunity to better integrate
air and rail infrastructure. They are complementary; not alternative
modes of travel.
4. The AOA supports the Government's
proposal for a new HSR network, linking key urban centres throughout
the country. HSR should be seen as complementary to air travel.
Passengers should have the choice of using air and rail, rather
than air or rail.
5. The AOA would like to see plans for HSR and
connectivity to airports brought forward to the extent that they
are practical and affordable. However, the Government should bear
in mind that in a tough business climate, airports' capital programmes
and therefore their ability to fund surface access projects
for airport connections, will be more limited.
6. HSR's environmental benefits, compared with
aviation, should not be overstated. By 2050, even with an extensive
and fully integrated European HSR network, the Government's independent
advising body on climate change, the Committee on Climate Change
(CCC) has estimated that less than 2% of aviation's emissions
will be saved by passengers switching to HSR.[389]
7. HSR has potential to release some airport
capacity, but this should not be overstated. In its second submission
to the Mawhinney Review, BAA estimated that an initial "off
airport" connection might enable a reallocation of up to
20,000 flights. This number should be kept in perspective: a large
proportion of journeys between HSR cities (such as Manchester,
Newcastle and London) already take place by rail; and there are
no commercial flights at all between Birmingham and London. As
an example, the flights that can be substituted through a connection
to Heathrow, represent approximately just 2% of air traffic movements
from UK airports. Moreover, the air transport network provides
vital connectivity between a vast network of urban centres in
the UK. The HSR network planned cannot provide a substitute for
this, due to its limited nature. This is shown illustratively
in Annex 2 to this submission.
8. AOA takes no position on the particular route
that should be selected for HSR, or exactly where and when connections
to airports should be made. However, as a trade association taking
a national perspective, we favour maximum connectivity and integration
across the network, with airports as directly linked to the HSR
network as possible. It is important that the Government considers
the future development of the network in the plans it is now making,
in order that increasing numbers of airports can be connected
to the HSR infrastructure over time.
AOA SUPPORTS INVESTMENT
IN ALL
TYPES OF
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
INFRASTRUCTURE
9. The AOA supports investment in all types of
public transport infrastructure, including aviation, rail and
other forms of transport. The benefits to business and individuals
of better transport infrastructure are well documented. In addition
to providing more infrastructure, HSR offers the opportunity to
better integrate air and rail infrastructure.
10. The 2006 Eddington Transport Study[390]
looked at the relationship between transport investment and economic
growth in detail. Eddington reviewed the best available research
on transport and economic growth and concluded that investment
in transport infrastructure had a complex relationship with growth.
It affected it in a number of ways, such as increasing business
efficiency, encouraging investment and innovation, making labour
markets more flexible, and increasing competition and trade.
11. Eddington further noted that while standard
cost benefit analyses can estimate overall gains in Gross Domestic
Product (GDP), by investing in transport, there are also a number
of "micro drivers", such as those set out above, which
are also important. Eddington recommended that the benefits of
these factors should also be considered when appraising new transport
schemes.
THE AOA SUPPORTS
HSR
12. The AOA supports the Government's proposal
for new HSR lines providing connectivity for surface and air travel
to and from key urban centres in the UK.
13. While the project is long term, AOA believes
that it will produce connectivity benefits, including additional
benefits not captured by the current appraisal, through better
integration of the overall UK transport network and greater mobility
of labour, goods and services.
THE GOVERNMENT
SHOULD PROGRESS
HSR, PROVIDED IT
IS PRACTICAL
AND AFFORDABLE
14. AOA would like to see plans for HSR and connectivity
to airports brought forward to the extent that they are practical
and affordable.
15. Regarding airport connections, the Government
should bear in mind that in a tough business climate, airports'
capital programmes and therefore their ability to fund surface
access projects, including HSR, will be more limited.
16. Any HSR proposal should be self-supporting
from a funding perspective. Some interest groups, such as Greengauge
21, have argued that an HSR network should be part-funded by a
hypothecated charge on aviation users.[391]
The aviation industry already more than pays its way, and air
passengers should not be treated as a source of funding for rail.
Excluding Air Passenger Duty, aviation's tax to Gross Value Added
(GVA) ratio was 32.5% in 2007-08, slightly higher than the economy
average 32.1%.[392]
17. HSR investment should be additional to, not
at the expense of, other much-needed-investment in rail (for example,
the required measures to address congestion at the "Northern
Hub", which affects the whole northern region). There is
little point in providing passengers with the option to travel
up and down the country in two hours, for them to find that an
East-West connection to travel a short distance to complete their
journey takes a similar length of time.
HSR'S ENVIRONMENTAL
BENEFITS, COMPARED
WITH AVIATION,
SHOULD NOT
BE OVERSTATED
18. The environmental benefits of HSR, compared
with aviation, should not be overstated—simply HSR will
not tackle emissions from aviation. In 2009, the Committee on
Climate Change considered the potential for air-rail substitution.
[393]
Even in its most favourable scenario (with full power sector de-carbonisation
and the UK's high speed line fully integrated into an upgraded
European network), only about 2% of aviation's emissions can be
saved by passengers switching to HSR. AOA has summarised the CCC's
findings in Annex 1 at the end of this document.
19. A 2007 report by Booz Allen Hamilton, commissioned
for the DfT, supports the AOA's view that HSR's environmental
benefits should not be overstated. The report found that: "The
London to Manchester base scenario results indicate that none
of the rail options under consideration achieve emissions parity
(ie the emissions saved from aviation exactly compensate for the
increased emissions from rail ie achieve a net carbon saving),
even at 100% rail share. In other words, if a new line is constructed
and operated on this route, regardless of the rail technology
employed, the amount of emissions generated would not reduce to
the level emitted in the do nothing scenario."[394]
HSR'S POTENTIAL TO
RELEASE AIRPORT
CAPACITY SHOULD
NOT BE
OVERSTATED
20. BAA looked at the potential for capacity
release in detail in its submissions to the Mawhinney Review of
HSR.[395]
In its second submission, BAA estimated that an initial "off
airport" connection might save some 20,000 flights. While
this number is significant, it must be kept in perspective. Taking
a national perspective, a large proportion of journeys from the
cities that HSR can compete with (such as Manchester, Newcastle
and London) already take place by rail; and there are absolutely
no commercial flights between Birmingham and London.
21. The flights that can be substituted through
a connection to Heathrow represent approximately 2% of air traffic
movements from UK airports.
22. Regarding competition, it is unlikely HSR
tickets will be significantly cheaper than air tickets unless
they are subsidised. To do so would raise questions about whether
and to what extent taxpayers should subsidise inter-city journeys
on HSR. Walk on fares for long distance rail journeys remain high
compared with domestic air travel and therefore the likelihood
of passengers switching as a result of price alone will be limited.
23. Successful integration between air and HSR
also depends on creating the right passenger experience. Achieving
efficient and seamless connections between the UK's key cities
and international gateways depends upon a number of critical factors
including interchange location, ease of interchange, service frequency,
through-ticketing, baggage management and wider connectivity.
While HSR has the potential to release pressure at congested airports,
the impression it is a panacea for otherwise overstretched UK
aviation infrastructure is mistaken.
24. Moreover, HSR should not be seen as a replacement
for short haul and domestic air journeys. Unlike airports which
can, broadly speaking, be connected to any other airport on earth
by the establishment of an air route, rail depends on geographically
fixed infrastructure—a track—which cannot simply link
any two points in the UK, particularly where there is a major
sea crossing involved. For example, every year some half a million
passengers fly between Gatwick and Belfast's two airports; and
around three quarters of a million make the journey between Belfast
and Heathrow.
25. Air travel and connectivity is no less vital
between smaller urban areas. For example, every year more than
15,000 people fly between Aberdeen and Exeter, a route which is
very unlikely to see substitution to HSR as a real option. The
UK's airports provide a vast network of connectivity between urban
centres in the UK. They allow passengers to travel in all directions
between a huge range of locations in the country. By contrast
the HSR network with its necessarily limited reach, cannot provide
a substantive alternative to this complex network. The connectivity
of the UK's domestic air links is compared with that which HSR
has the potential to provide in Annex 2 to this submission.
26. Whilst there are currently a number of options
for the route of the new HSR network, it is clear that there is
a compromise between the straightest (and thus fastest) route,
and a route which includes the UK's major cities, but in so doing
adds distance and reduces the maximum speed a train could travel
at. The need to reach a workable compromise limits the ability
of HSR to provide the same level of connectivity as is provided
by air.
27. Rail networks inherently lack resilience,
due to their dependence on fixed infrastructure with limited scope
for alternative routing. A fire in the Channel Tunnel in 2008
closed the tunnel for two days; and a full service was only restored
in early 2009, after repairs were completed. At the time, service
levels were reduced to 90% of Eurostar services, 60% of Eurotunnel
passenger vehicle shuttles and 70% of the HGV shuttles.[396]
Reduced services and a lack of alternatives present problems to
businesses dependent on transport links, and reinforce the importance
of alternatives such as aviation. Conversely, an airport's resilience
is only constrained by political and regulatory policy, and Government
intervention, in terms of its allowed runway and facilities capacity.
THE AOA TAKES NO
POSITION ON
THE PARTICULAR
ROUTE THAT
SHOULD BE
SELECTED FOR
HSR
28. The AOA takes no position on the particular
route that should be selected for HSR, or exactly where and when
connections to airports should be made. However, as a trade association
taking a national perspective, we favour maximum connectivity
and integration across the network, with connections to airports
as close and direct as possible.
29. It is important that the Government considers
the future development of the network in the plans it is now making
in order that increasing numbers of airports can be connected
to the HSR infrastructure over time.
May 2011
Annex 1
SUMMARY OF THE COMMITEE ON CLIMATE CHANGE'S
FINDINGS ON THE SCOPE FOR AIR-RAIL SUBSTITUTION REPORTED IN ITS
2009 AVIATION EMISSIONS REPORT
30. In 2009, the Committee on Climate Change
(CCC—the Government's Independent Adviser on climate change
and the budgets associated with the Climate Change Bill) produced
a report on aviation emissions. Its purpose was to consider options
for meeting the target of reducing UK aviation emissions to real-2005-levels
by 2050, set by the previous administration. As part of its analysis
it considered the scope for air-rail substitution with and without
a second high speed line in the UK. The report is available on
the CCCs website.[397].
AOA's summary of its key findings is below. The CCC assumed that:
— On
journeys less than 400 km conventional rail is faster than
air for point-to-point journeys (London to Manchester is 296
km by rail, London to Brussels 373 km).
— On
journeys less than 800 km HSR may lead to switching to rail
(London to Edinburgh is 632 km by rail, London to Amsterdam 605
km).
— Above
800 km air is faster. A competing rail
option would need to have other advantages (eg significantly lower
prices) to be competitive. For example, cities such as Berlin
(1,204 km from London by rail), Milan (1,406 km) and Madrid (1,942
km) are beyond the 800 km range.
31. The CCC used these assumptions to analyse
the scope to cut emissions through switching from air to rail.
In 2005, domestic and short-haul aviation up to 1,000 km was some
13% of total UK aviation emissions (ie, up to 5 MtCO2).
32. However, as regards the scope to cut this
by switching to rail, the CCC noted that:
— Not
all flights are substitutable by rail (eg across the Irish Sea).
— Not
all destinations will be connected by high-speed rail.
— Even
for connected destinations, these will not achieve 100% market
share—particularly for longer routes and where there is
only partial integration of the European high-speed network.
— There
are emissions associated with rail/ high-speed rail (ie in building
new infrastructure, and in running trains to the extent that the
electricity grid is not fully decarbonised).
The CCC Commissioned modelling work which considered
all these effects, alongside different combinations of oil and
carbon prices.
SWITCHING DOMESTIC
FLIGHTS TO
RAIL
33. In relation to switching and high speed rail,
the CCC concluded that, with a high speed line in place in the
early 2020's, rail market share could rise to 40% between Manchester
and Heathrow. This figure could potentially be increased further
with integrated air and rail services (including ticketing and
baggage transfer.
34. By 2050 with a new high-speed line, rail
market share is projected to increase from current levels of 20-35%
to 75-90% on Anglo-Scottish routes and small increases on other
key routes eg from 88% to 97% on London to Manchester.
TRAVELLING TO
EUROPE BY
HSR INSTEAD OF
AIR
35. The CCC believed that future rail market
share on routes from London to mainland Europe would be largely
dependent on integration of the European network. A number of
European countries have, or plan to have, high speed rail networks.
The analysis commissioned by the CCC concluded that with integration,
high-speed rail could gain a market share of 30-60% on routes
such as London to Amsterdam, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt, and
see some increase possible on routes already well served by high-speed
rail (eg London to Paris and Brussels). But, there is limited
scope for significantly increased market share on longer distance
routes, such as London to Berlin, Milan, or Madrid.
36. In total, the analysis suggested that switching
to HSR has scope to reduce emissions by 0.4 MtCO2 to
2.2 MtCO2 in 2050. The larger savings would only be
made if the UK power sector is completely de-carbonised.
37. Assuming a new HSR line in the UK, and a
fully integrated European high-speed rail network, there was potential
for an 8% demand reduction (about 45 million passengers)
and a 1.7 MtCO2 emissions reduction by 2050. While
this emissions savings should be welcomed, it should be noted
that by 2050 aviation emissions are projected to be about 81 MtCO2.
This means that by 2050, with a fully integrated European HSR
network alongside, the scope for UK HSR to reduce aviation emissions,
as a result of switching, is still limited to about 2% of UK aviation's
total emissions.
Annex 2
ILLUSTRATIVE COMPARISON OF CONNECTIVITY PROVIDED
BY THE DOMESTIC AIR TRANSPORT NETWORK AND A SECOND HIGH SPEED
RAIL LINE
389 Committee on Climate Change, Aviation Report, 2009.
See:
http://www.theccc.org.uk/reports/aviation-report pp66-82. Back
390
Eddington Transport Study, 2006, HMSO. Back
391
http://www.greengauge21.net/assets/FastForward_Greengauge21.pdf,
p.55. Back
392
"What is the contribution of aviation to the UK economy?",
OXERA report for the Airport Operators Association, Nov 2009. Back
393
Committee on Climate Change, Aviation Report, 2009. See:
http://www.theccc.org.uk/reports/aviation-report pp 66-82. Back
394
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/researchtech/research/newline/carbonimpact.pdf;
the environmental case for a London-Scotland HSR route is stronger,
however, due to the expected amount of modal change. The assumptions
underlying the Booz Allen Hamilton work are open to question.
They are conservative in their assessment of the likely scale
of improvement in aviation's environmental performance to 2050,
but equally they are conservative in their view on the likely
sources of electricity to run an HSR network. Back
395
http://www.scribd.com/doc/39878496/High-Speed-Rail-Access-to-Heathrow-BAA-Submission-to-the-Lord-Mawhinney-Review Back
396
Today's Railways UK. February 2009. Back
397
Committee on Climate Change, Aviation Report, 2009. See:
http://www.theccc.org.uk/reports/aviation-report pp 66-82. Back
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