NO MORE FREE BUSES AROUND HEATHROW
PRESS RELEASE
28 May 2021
NO MORE FREE BUSES AROUND HEATHROW
Local campaigners have reacted angrily to the news that Heathrow Airport is abolishing the Free Travel Zone on 12 June, despite the Airport pledging to increase use of public transport and reduce pollution as it still seeks to expand (1).
Under the current scheme, journeys on buses between each of the Heathrow terminals and around the airport perimeter are free. Most routes subsidised are on Transport for London services, although some which were operated by private operators from Surrey and Berkshire. Support for these schemes was abolished in January 2021.
TfL routes currently part of the scheme include the 105, 111, 278, 350, 423, 482, 490, N9, N140 and U3. Transport for London confirmed that the Heathrow Free Travel Zone costs roughly £1.2m per year (based on pre-pandemic demand), which Heathrow pay to TfL in return for allowing passengers to board buses in the Zone for free (2).
The scheme plays a key role in allowing travel around the airport perimeter and into the terminals – which are not accessible by any active travel methods such as cycling or on foot – for both passengers and staff and the travelling public, in the specified areas. The abolition of the Free Travel Zone is likely to lead to more cars on local roads and therefore an increase in carbon emissions.
A single journey on TfL bus services is currently £1.55. Based on an additional cost of £3.10 per day, this could mean staff commuting to work and using the Free Travel Zone either from the cycle park or a staff car park, could face an additional cost of £46.50 based on 15 shifts per month, just to get into work, according to the GMB Union (3).
Heathrow, and its predecessor BAA, have subsidised the scheme since the opening of Terminal 5 in 2008 and have continually claimed that it wants to see 50% of journeys to the airport made on public transport by 2030 if it is allowed to build a third runway (4).
Additionally, staff benefits, such as discounts on TfL Rail between London Paddington and Heathrow and on Great Western Railway between Reading and Heathrow, will also be scrapped from 30 June 2021 (5).
The news is yet another blow to Heathrow staff, who faced rises of 133% to staff car parking permits as a result of increased tariffs it introduced at the airport earlier this year in order to recover costs lost during the pandemic (6).
Geraldine Nicholson from local campaign group Stop Heathrow Expansion, said:
“By reducing this free travel scheme and scrapping travel discounts for staff, this will hit people’s pockets and could lead to an increase in pollution if less people use public transport to access the airport. Heathrow should commit to reintroducing the scheme’s funding as soon as possible.
“Heathrow, who are still pushing for a third runway, assured politicians that it would achieve least half of all journeys to the airport on public transport. This retrograde step is hardly going to achieve that and amounts, ultimately, to yet another broken promise by the airport.
ENDS.
Notes:
https://www.heathrow.com/transport-and-directions/by-coach-or-bus/local-buses
https://www.gmblondon.org.uk/news/save-free-and-discounted-travel-for-heathrow-airport-staff
https://hec1.heathrowconsultation.com/managing-effects/surface-access/