Don’t make Crossrail pay

Christian Wolmar is quite right in exposing the weakness of the case seeking to make Crossrail contribute to the previous cost of constructing railway tunnels into Heathrow Airport ( RAIL 828).

Heathrow Airport Limited built the tunnels as part of the airport, not as part of a free-standing

railway, and the absence of separate accounts for Heathrow Express would seem to confirm this.

The aim would have been to enhance the attractiveness of the airport as a whole, and encourage an increase in the number of passengers using it.

The costs should therefore be recovered from enhanced revenue from aircraft landing fees and enhanced revenue from increased passenger expenditure in the terminals, plus any operating profit from Heathrow Express.

Crossrail should not be expected to fund historic capital expenditure made for that purpose. Tim Morton, Balham