Crispin Blunt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Crispin Blunt on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effects of expansion of Gatwick Airport on seat capacity on northbound trains into London terminals in (a) 2030 and (b) 2040 during weekday morning peak periods.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Airports Commission analysed the likely surface access impacts of a second runway at Gatwick Airport in 2030. Its analysis concluded that the second runway does increase forecast crowding on the Brighton Main Line but not to significant levels.

At the time its work was carried out, the Airports Commission felt it was not plausible to carry out detailed surface access analysis for 2040 and beyond because of the difficulty in making assumptions about the likely state of the transport network and background growth at that time.