During 2007, the AirTrack Forum commissioned consultants SDG to undertake a detailed study of the Wider Economic Benefits of the AirTrack proposal (the WEB study). The objective was to assess benefits which may not have been captured by previous studies, in line with the latest guidance from the Department for Transport.
This work was made possible by generous financial contributions from the SE England Regional Assembly on behalf the SE Regional Transport Board and from the SE England Development Agency.
The initial WEB study results, announced at the Forum's Annual Meeting on 1 November 2007, indicate that the Benefit:Cost Ratio for the project would improve by around 30% if the additional benefits assessed by the study were included. It also found the potential for futher additional contribution arising from improved access to Heathrow; a potential for additional employment generation in the immediate local area to the proposed new station in Staines and increased productivity throughout the AirTrack corridor.
The study was based on data from a study previously undertaken by Atkins for the AirTrack Forum - the "Outline Business Case" (OBC), published in 2004, as this was more readily available than that subsequently developed by consultants Arup for a later study undertaken on behalf of the then Strategic Rail Authority (SRA). The Atkins data resulted in a lower level of benefits than that resulting from the Arup work and, as a result, the associated Wider Economic Benefits calculated by SDG may also be under-reported. See below for further information on these previous studies.
To view a copy of the final report of the new SDG WEB study, click here
The 2004 Atkins OBC study was commissioned by the AirTrack Forum to reconfirm the practicality and viability of the AirTrack project. It found AirTrack to be a realistic and financially viable business proposition which would bring a wide range of benefits to both Heathrow users and workers and to the wider community. A range of sensitivity tests were undertaken to demonstrate the robustness of the proposal, with the central case generating a healthy Benefit : Cost Ratio of 2.7:1.
The Executive Summary and the full Final Report from that OBC study are available below. Warning - the full Final Report is very large (12.7MB) and may take some time to download.
