Last Tuesday saw the inaugural meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Western Rail Link to Heathrow (APPG for WRLtH) which will support the case for and delivery of the Western Rail Link to Heathrow.
WRLtH would see the creation of a new rail connection from Reading, via Slough, to London Heathrow, giving 20 per cent of the UK population access to Heathrow via one interchange. Journey times in the future could be as short as 26 minutes from Reading and 6 minutes from Slough.
Tan Dhesi, MP for Slough said: “This project would not only benefit my Slough constituents, but provide a more direct rail link for passengers from the Thames Valley area, Wales, Bristol, the West Midlands and the South West. Beyond the obvious convenience of reduced journey times, the scheme could see an estimated £800m of economic activity and 42,000 new jobs, and shifting passengers from road to rail could lead to CO2 savings equivalent to approximately 30 million road miles a year.”
Tan Dhesi and Richard Benyon were elected as Co-Chairs, Geraint Davies as Secretary and Luke Pollard as Treasurer, Kevin Foster and Christina Rees as Vice-Chairs.
The inaugural meeting was attended by Tan Dhesi, Slough, Richard Benyon, Newbury, Christina Rees, Neath, Luke Pollard, Plymouth, Gary Streeter, South West Devon, Ruth Cadbury, Brentford and Isleworth, Chris Evans, Islwyn, Geraint Davies, Swansea West, Steve Double, St Austell, and Newquay and Kevin Foster, Torbay.
Jane Jones from GWR was also in attendance. Many other MPs expressed their support and promised to attend future meetings.
