* COMMENT: Electrify London City Airport

SEE ADDED PLANNING APPLICATION

Transport for London (TfL) has produced a press statement on the success of the Elizabeth Line, energetically taken up by the media, particularly the local BBC.  

What the press has failed to highlight is the (mainly political) mistakes taken in its 14 years of development since Royal Assent, and the official £18.9bn cost.

Business Travel News (from which Travel News Update has evolved) has long argued that the old Silvertown for London City Airport station be part of the new line, vigorously opposed by the then Mayor of London Boris Johnson and his lackies, the discredited Crossrail – and later London City Airport (LCY) Chairman (Sir) Terry Morgan and TfL board member Daniel “over my dead body” Moylan, raised to the House of Lords as Baron Moylan.

The soon to become Prime Minister preferred to spend unauthorised money on a wild Thames Estuary airport scheme ignoring LCY as a major gateway to the capital, and its surrounding area, an important part of the old docklands, not offering a station between Custom House and Woolwich, the other side of the river.  A station at Old Oak Common was also dropped to connect with HS2.

London City is known for its innovation (it was an innovation itself) and until the coming of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in 2008 a water bus service was provided from Westminster Pier.

There is a solution, albeit not ideal, but at least progress until a station is finally built.

Travel News Update is proposing a courtesy electric bus service every ten minutes from the terminal to Custom House DLR/Elizabeth Line station and onwards.  The trip will take five minutes and also provide an airport link to the huge ExCeL London exhibition hall.  The DLR service every 15 minutes makes eight stops and takes 21 minutes to Bank (and still a very complicated changeover to the Underground).  Travelling on the Elizabeth Line v DLR is rather like comparing chalk and cheese.  TNU much prefers the 21st century enterprise.

And the cost?  Why not sponsorship by British Airways, easily the largest operator at the airport with 35 destinations.  BA buses with the Chatham flag around Silvertown/Beckton area will certainly brighten up the whole neighbourhood and add customers.

What about it London City Airport Ltd and British Airways CityFlyer?


Travel Details (from the TfL web site)

London City Airport to Bond Street via DLR/Jubilee Line 40 minutes
London City Airport to Bond Street via Custom House 19 minutes plus five minutes transfer from the airport

The Elizabeth Line features direct services to Heathrow and via Farringdon, both Gatwick and Luton Airports, plus Liverpool Street station for Stansted and East Anglia.

FROM HISTORY

The Declan Collier (MD 2012–2017) concept. See below.

The similar Southend Airport station, built on an active railway line, cost £15m.  Collier forgot the little used airport 'back door' only 150 yards from the proposed station site and less than the Heathrow Express to Terminal 2.  AND FINALLY Business Travel News 23 May 2022 tells the tale. It was replaced by an advertisement.

Added COMMENT  19 December 2022

London, UK – 19 December, 2022 

London City Airport today submitted an application to the London Borough of Newham to make changes to its existing planning permission. 

The application follows an extensive 10-week local consultation carried out by the airport and includes: 

• Increasing the current planning cap on the number of passengers from 6.5 million to 9 million passengers per annum by 2031  
• An extension to the operating hours on Saturday from the current closing time of 12.30pm to 6.30 pm, with an additional hour in Summer for arriving flights only, up to a maximum of 12
• Allowing three additional flights in the first half hour of operations on Mondays to Saturdays (6.30am-6.59am) with a new limit of 9 flights instead of the current limit of 6 flights
• A requirement that all aircraft operating in the newly extended hours on Saturday or additional flights in the first 30 minutes must be cleaner, quieter, new generation aircraft, operating to the highest noise and emissions standards 

What will not change as part of the application: 

• The airport is not seeking any increase to the annual number of permitted flights, which will remain at 111,000 

• No change to the existing 8-hour nightly curfew  
• No additional infrastructure  
• Sunday operations will be unchanged, commencing from 12.30pm until 10.00pm 
• No change to the restrictions in the last 30 minutes of operations which will remain capped at 400 per annum for late departing or arriving aircraft 

In a first for a UK airport, London City will mandate that only cleaner, quieter, new generation aircraft will be allowed to operate in any newly extended hours on a Saturday, and for any new flights in the first half hour of the day.  

This will result in airlines replacing their older fleets with new generation aircraft in order to benefit from any increased flexibility, which in turn will accelerate the benefits of quieter aircraft for local residents throughout the week as the airport becomes home to one of the youngest, most modern, aircraft fleets in the country.  

The proposals have been developed in close consultation with the airport’s major airlines who support the sustainability ambitions in the plans.

With East London, and Newham in particular, facing up to the stark challenges of the cost-of-living crisis, the airport will, as part of the plans, offer a new Community Fund of £3.8 million over ten years to be distributed directly to local good causes via the established Trust. Currently, the airport’s Community Fund awards £75,000 per year. The growth in passenger numbers to 9 million annually and increased flexibility will also create almost 2,200 additional jobs across London, with 1,340 being created at the airport itself.  

The plans include further enhancements to the airport’s sound insulation scheme, which is already one of the most generous in the UK.

In addition, the airport plans to create a Transport Fund which could be used to improve bus connections between the airport and the Elizabeth Line and enhanced DLR operations in the mornings, benefiting staff, passengers, and local residents.  

Commenting on the plans, the airport’s Chief Executive, Robert Sinclair, said: “As we bounce back from the pandemic and demand increases, we need to ensure London City can accommodate the increase in business and leisure passengers forecast over the next decade or so, particularly as East London grows, and more and more passengers choose to fly through London’s fastest and most convenient airport. Most importantly, the proposals have been very carefully designed with input from our airlines to ensure that flying from London City becomes more sustainable, with more new generation aircraft, reducing noise impacts and emissions per passenger. 

“We are committed to working with our local community to ensure our plans work for residents as well as our airlines and passengers. We have listened to the feedback provided in our extensive consultation, and have adjusted the proposals to reflect concerns raised, including reducing the proposed increase in operating hours on Saturdays, reducing the proposed increase in flights in the first 30 minutes and retaining the existing limit on flights in the last 30 minutes. Our proposals will create more jobs, invest more money into the local community, fund better transport connections and improve sound insulation for local residents.” 

More detail on the proposals will be available once the London Borough of Newham have checked the application details and publicise their statutory consultation on the proposals. This is expected to run from mid-January 2023.

Ends. 

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READERS' COMMENT

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 200 words maximum

John Jones, West Ham

I have spoken to numerous people since the opening of the Elizabeth Line and all agree that missing out with the station was a big mistake. Why no words from the airport officially? The workers I have spoken to agree.