The Windsor Link Railway

Air-Lite gets more support

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:06:21 +0000

Well done to Wandsworth Council for getting more support for their Air-Lite scheme. The news today is that they have secured the support of both Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fullham. WLR would expect them soon to get the support of Wokingham, Bracknell and Surrey councils. That would mean that of all the boroughs in the East Berkshire LEP, only Slough would be backing the more expensive, competing link direct to Slough from Heathrow.

Network Rail have said that there would only be one western rail link to Heathrow, so it is a battle to see which offers the most benefit.

The Windsor Link Railway, of course, is Air-Lite+. It builds on Wandsworth proposals and adds a link to the Thames Valley via Slough. Thus it provides a solution for everybody. Add to this that it could be funded at no cost to the taxpayer and you have a knock-out business case.

WLR answers questions from Thamesweb

admin — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:29:49 +0000

Thamesweb is a very useful and informative local website with a lively discussion forum. They’ve asked a lot of questions, so here are some of the answers.

Thamesweb (admin): You asked to see more detail on the scheme in the Windsor area. This doesn’t yet exist because the Windsor Link Railway is providing the opportunity to improve the riverside area; it is not dictating how that should be done. Once we have investment we will be able to present more detailed plans and do a formal consultation in partnership with local people. WLR recognises that Windsor is a beautiful and historic place and the objective is to improve it. At every stage in the project the design principle has been that everybody must win. That is, it is no good building a shining new link from Slough or Staines to Heathrow if it is at the expense of people elsewhere. That is not a net gain and it is the reason projects such as Airtrack failed. WLR seeks to help Windsor’s neighbours not by being a doormat but by seeking mutual advantage.

In the meantime, any ideas local residents have for making better use of the riverside area, restoring it and improving the visual environment are most welcome.

Goswell: yes, generous compensation would be offered to any businesses or residents adversely affected (although we do not expect many of these and would keep disruption during construction to a minimum).

Park-and-ride is an integral part of the scheme, enabling potentially two schemes: one off the M4 and one in Poyle.

Jiffle king: The 15% margin mentioned previously was illustrative. Gross margin is much higher than this as most of the costs with rail are capital costs. Operating costs, such as staff, track maintenance and electricity are relatively small although the actual amounts chargeable depend the financial structure and Network Rail.

The four trains per hour are two from a shuttle service in addition to the current SWT service of two.

It is proposed that one of the level crossings in Datchet would be replaced with an underpass, preserving the look of the village but greatly reducing congestion and improving air quality.

Philb: phases 1 and 2 have been designed to be independent to minimise project risk. Whilst Heathrow is the glamourous destination actually more people travel from south London to the Thames Valley every day and this is reflected in our revenue forecasts. That said, the Heathrow connection, and the possibility of bringing Crossrail or the Heathrow Express to Windsor, is obviously highly desirable and will only add the business case for Phase 1.

Jiffle king: I’m sorry but can’t name investors without their permission and it wouldn’t be helpful to negotiations anyway. Also until we’ve got an agreement we can’t give an estimate on starting work. The most time consuming and unpredictable part is dealing with Network Rail.
-As you expect the 6 minute service to Heathrow would require some upgrades to the track and is not proposed from the outset.
-Fares are based on current rates but, depending on the financial structure we are allowed by the government, we may be able to opt out of the franchise system and offer lower fares in future.
-What buildings, if any, that would have to be knocked down or purchased would depend on the final design chosen by local people for the area. No heritage or listed buildings would be affected, however. Both station buildings would become redundant as stations and put to new use but otherwise remain as they are.
-As I’ve said above the railway is strongly supportive of a park-and-ride scheme. As with the railway tunnel this could potentially be constructed at no cost to the taxpayer and rail would provide a faster and more reliable link into the centres of both Slough and Windsor as well as better bus links to areas such as Park and Dedworth.

Menace: there are no plans ‘to tear the heart out of prime business locations’. All will be untouched but complemented by better communication links and improved facilities perhaps including a return of an anchor store such as John Lewis. The companies supporting the link were all from the centre of Windsor and Eton. A full list has been sent to the secretary of state.

Jiffle king: the objective is to raise private money so as not to burden taxpayers. However, if the taxpayer wants to pay for it (or even insists on doing so) that is a different matter. Either way the focus is on delivering benefit to local residents not being precious about a particular funding model.

If there are more questions or suggestions, please leave comments below. I’ll do my best to answer as many of them as I can.

Transport hub ideas dovetail with WLR proposals

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 18:04:56 +0000

Last week’s Royal Borough Observer not only reported the news that over 100 local companies had backed the WLR , it also revealed ideas from the West Windsor Residents Association for a new transport hub. This would be on land currently occupied by construction workers’ caravans during improvements to the dual carriageway.

WLR has proposed something very similar but rather than using a Green Belt site just off the Jubilee River, it has proposed the site of the current tip, just north of the M4. This site has a number of advantages including: easier access from the MR, not being brown field and creating a regeneration opportunity for the Chalvey area of Slough. This last point would potentially enable the transport hub to be built at no cost to the taxpayer.

However, either site would do from a transport perspective and linking with the railway would provide faster transfer times into Windsor (3 minutes into the town centre versus 10 minutes+ for a bus depending on the traffic). This increase in speed plus more the more frequent trains provided by the WLR would make park-n-ride more attractive. A transport hub linked to the railway would also improve access to rail services for residents in the outlying areas of Windsor such as Dedworth and Clewer and raise house values and employment there.

WLR welcomes these ideas and hopes they can be brought forward for the benefit of residents.

Council starts scrutiny of WLR Proposals

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 17:06:03 +0000

The Windsor Link Railway is on the agenda for two council meetings in coming weeks.

On Wednesday this week (16 May) at 7 pm in the Guildhall the Aviation Forum will hear about the project from the perspective of linking Heathrow to Windsor and the surrounding region.

On Monday 21 May there is a special meeting of the Planning and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel . This will look at the opportunities that the Windsor Link Railway will create for improving the riverside area of Windsor.

Members of the public are welcome to attend both.

What is the Windsor Link? – a one pager

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:40:30 +0000

See here for a new one-page summary of the Windsor Link railway as it benefits Windsor.

More info on other towns in the region coming soon.

What is the Windsor Link Railway

Over 100 businesses support the Windsor Link

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:36:10 +0000

The Windsor Chamber of Commerce has organised a letter to the Secretary of State for transport supporting the Windsor Link Railway by asking it to be included as an option for a western link to Heathrow. Over 100 Windsor and Eton companies, large and small, have now supported the letter below. If you are a company and want to add your name to the list, please email us. Chamber Letter to SoS 170412x If you are an individual and want to support WLR but feel left out, don’t worry there will likely be a public petition soon. You are however, welcome to email us with any comments or questions.

Restoring Bourne End rail link is easier than HS2

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:08:30 +0000

Whilst the focus on the Windsor Link Railway is initially around Windsor, this is only the first part of a wider vision of transport for the region – restoring missing links to provide extra transport capacity at little cost. Re-opening the line from Maidenhead to High Wycombe (and thereby giving a direct link from Oxford to Heathrow) is part of this vision. Hat tip to Ian Smith for drawing my attention to his letter in the Buck Free Press.

A very postive business case

admin — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:18:00 +0000

We’ve been keeping deliberately quite here for the last year while we focus on a business case for phase 1 (connecting Slough to Staines via Windsor) of the new railway. The initial results are complete and I thought I would share the headline results.

At the beginning of last year WLR started the work to look at the engineering costs. This found that the proposed tunnel would cost around £75 million, of which £40 million would be for the cut-n-cover tunnel under Thames Avenue and £35m for the rail works. We allow a further £25m for other items making a total of £100 million. This means that we are well within our initial estimate of £500 million for the entire scheme.

Just before Christmas WLR (assisted by one of the world’s largest engineering firms) completed a revenue study to set against this cost. This projected that, provided we can run trains every 15 minutes, we would generate £20 million of fare revenue.

The environmental and economic benefits, both local and national, would be on top of this but we have yet to quantify these. Other benefits to local people may include council revenue equivalent to a cut of 1% in RBWM Council Tax, a ten minute reduction in journey time to both Paddington and Waterloo from Windsor and a 20 minute reduction from Maidenhead to Staines and south London. Slough, Maidenhead and Windsor would all be much better places for sustainable economic growth as a result of the WLR.

Railways do not usually have such a strong business case. HS2, for example, takes 60 years to pay back with some fairly heroic growth assumptions. Slough’s proposal for connecting only to Heathrow may take 50 to 100 years to pay back by our calculations. By contrast, crudely based on the figures above, phase 1 of WLR would pay back in about 10 years. If we include phase 2, connecting to Heathrow, then the payback on phase 1 will be even better. The reason that WLR has such a strong business case is that it is not really building a new railway but making better use of existing ones. By providing missing links rather than completely new infrastructure we can produce much better returns.

WLR has also made progress reducing the complexity of the project by breaking it down into more manageable stages. A proposal went to Network Rail last week we await their response.

See us in Modern Railways

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:15:18 +0000

The Windsor Link Railway is featured in the latest issues of Modern Railways (£). The article focusses on solutions for a western rail link to Heathrow, one of which is the Windsor Link and the other is Wandsworth’s proposal for ‘Airtrack Lite’ (£). These two proposals dovetail very well and are mutually supportive. The Windsor Link Railway is also pleased to see the Mayor of London supporting Wandsworth’s proposals.

See us in the Windsor Observer

admin — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:11:06 +0000

“Rail plan on track as engineers steam ahead”.