London Luton Airport (LLA) has revealed plans to open a new 24-hour people mover system between the airport terminal and Luton Airport Parkway station by 2020.
The airport plans to construct a people mover system similar to those used at Birmingham Airport and Gatwick.
Nick Barton, chief executive of LLA, said: “Improving rail links is a crucial part of LLA’s development, and integral to ensure that we provide the best service possible for all our passengers.
“The creation of a light rail link between Parkway station and the terminal is a significant milestone in the airport’s transformation and the first step towards creating a world-class air-rail service.
“We will continue to work hard to increase the number of fast train services and add the airport to the Oyster card network.”
It’s about time that Luton Airport needs a light rail system that will cut journey times between the “Parkway (Thameslink)” railway station and the airport’s main terminal to end shuttle buses operating between the main terminal and the railway station that would take 8 minutes by shuttle bus but with the new light rail it will half the journey times to about 4 minutes.
Luton airport needs to think of the bigger picture.
One thing is to have a connection to the MML at Luton Parkway, another is to have a direct connection to a London terminus.
If Luton airport´s ambitions are to grow in order to challenge Gatwick (for instance) as a principal airport then it has to think about direct connections to Central London. Therefore, it should be thinking about a direct link from the MML into the airport.
This, however, should not limit the thinking.
Run a rail link from St.Pancras to Luton Parkway and on to the airport. That is the normal way to think.
However, if you consider that the airport line could continue from the airport to Stevenage (to provide an excellent connection to the ECML) then it even continue into Moorgate(thus providing services direct to the City).
Maybe this idea would be considered too much under present circumstances, but it should be taken into consideration if the airport has long term plans.