London airports: five things to fix

Extra runways are critical, but long-suffering travellers face more immediate problems, says Nick Trend

Ihate to spoil the party, or wake – depending on your view on the Government’s decision to give the goahead to a third runway at Heathrow – but I wonder whether most travellers care less about which London airport is expanded and more about whether we have a decent experience when we travel to and through them. Building extra runways is critical, but there are other problems with airport infrastructure that need to be addressed by the Government and airports.

Connections from London

Airport “expresses” – the trains to Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow – are among the most expensive rail services in the country. Yet they hardly serve us well. The Gatwick Express was unreliable for much of this summer and has just reduced its schedule in order to “improve reliability”. The so-called Stansted Express is still painfully slow, and the last one of the day – at 12.30am – is too early for passengers who arrive on the last flights, which land at midnight. Luton airport doesn’t even have proper rail connection – you have to catch a bus for the last part of the journey.

Connections between airports

If it’s hard to get from central London to one of the capital’s airports, it’s even harder to travel between them, except by coach, which means braving the perpetual traffic jam on the M25. This is frustrating for travellers flying in from regional airports and transferring to another London airport. Decent direct rail connections between the airports would transform the situation.

Nick Trend is Telegraph Travel’s consumer expert