To the editor of the Sunday Times

Undoubtedly there are many who will agree with the Sunday Times that any expansion of Heathrow Airport is a bad thing.

They wrongly assume that a third runway must mean more noise, more congestion, and more pollution. They ignore the fact that Heathrow has been allowed to develop piecemeal to operate at 98 per cent of capacity, which equates to more planes held in stacks until a slot can become found for them to land, long queues for take-off, delays in obtaining a parking gate, and frustration and anger because of the consequent chaos.

An additional runway will reduce this pressure - provided aircraft capacity is then limited to the saner levels prevailing at Schipol, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, Germany. Noise and pollution can be held by insisting that the airlines allowed to service Heathrow be restricted to those operating the most modern, fuel-efficient and quiet engines.

But the biggest weakness of present government plans for Heathrow is that little attention is being paid to surface access. Although about one quarter of the passengers using Heathrow come from the west of the airport, there is no rail access from the Thames Valley or beyond. That means most passengers, as well as the tens of thousands of airport employees that live in the Thames Valley, have no choice but to drive to Heathrow, adding to the congestion on the M4 and M25, and to greenhouse gas emissions.

Extending the Heathrow Express from Terminal 5 the short distance to the Great western main line at Slough would be a quick and cheap solution to this problem, and would result in a cleaner environment.

Heathrow is not going to vanish. It sits in the middle of the two most dynamic contributors to the British economy - London and the Thames Valley, which is the fastest growing region outside the capital. Its prime purpose should be to serve both these communities as efficiently as possible, and this can only happen if surface transport from the west is improved and overall capacity is limited.

Shaun Whittaker
Chief Executive