Improving transport to Heathrow ‘could cost taxpayer £2bn’

Heathrow today came under pressure from rival Gatwick to explain how it proposes to pay for multi-billion-pound improvements to transport links if it wins the right to expand.

The taxpayer may have to pick up a £2 billion bill for new road and rail links required to cope with additional traffic if Heathrow builds a third runway, Gatwick claimed.

Widening of the M4 would cost £1.4 billion, according to a report by consultancy Jacobs for the Government’s aviation commission.

The same report costed M25 tunnelling at £400 million, of which Heathrow has so far said it would contribute approximately half.

A third runway would also require a £500 million upgrade to southern rail access, but the source of funding for this is unclear, bringing the total funding “gap” to £2.1 billion, Gatwick says.

A spokesman for Gatwick Airport said: “The Airports Commission says Heathrow would need £5.7 billion of additional investment to pay for improvements to road and rail access if it expands.

“A significant proportion of these costs would have to come from the taxpayer and the UK public deserves to know how much it will have to bear and how much Heathrow will actually pay for themselves.”