By community correspondent Joel Nulsen

In recent years, the presence of Heathrow airport has proved to be more and more of a hindrance to local residents. Whether it’s noise pollution, air pollution, or even the proposed demolition of residents’ homes, the airport that supports the city is always in the news for squashing the suburb. And things aren’t looking up, either.

Airtrack is a proposed new rail network that will link Heathrow’s Terminal 5 building to the existing South West Trains network in Staines. The design promises only to require 4km of new tracks, going mainly through the Egham area. It is seen as a low-cost option, costing an estimated £673m. So far, so good. But another problem arises: traffic. The plans are for trains on three separate services to run regularly every 30 minutes in both directions, resulting in a train every five minutes in some areas. Egham residents fear that the level crossings will cause traffic to come to absolute gridlock, especially at rush hour.

The planners are aware of this problem, not least because of pressure groups such as The Egham Airtrack Opposition, but also thanks to an extensive consultation. In fact, the original plans for Airtrack included the integration of new signalling technology, to decrease waiting times, but Runnymeade Council vetoed this action. As it stands, the Airtrack scheme will affect fifteen level crossings, of which three of the worst affected are in Egham. These, it is estimated, will be closed for 34 minutes of every hour from 7a.m. to 7p.m.

In the scheme’s defence, it is estimated that the new connections will remove around 5,000 cars from local roads every weekday at morning rush hour. However, many residents are still worried that the impact of the prolonged closures of level crossings on arterial roads will far outweigh any impact from decreased car volumes. The Egham Airtrack Opposition is calling for the construction of tunnels to replace the current level crossings, but no such tunnel has yet been included in design plans.

The future of Heathrow seems to be taking another turn for the worse for local residents, who, it seems, will have to put up with severe traffic delays is the scheme goes ahead.