§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the total estimated cost is of the(a) road and (b) rail links to Stansted airport to cater for future capacity; and what provisions towards these costs are made in the 10 year transport plan. [R] [124769]
§ Mr. McNultyStansted airport received planning approval in September 2002 to expand to cater for 25 million passengers per annum (mppa) and a section 106 agreement between BAA and the local authority has recently been signed. BAA Stansted and SRA are currently negotiating a parallel legal agreement, which has been agreed in principle, for a package of improvements to meet anticipated increased rail use associated with the airport to 25 mppa, the costs of which are to be borne by BAA. Highway works at junctions 8 and 8A of the Ml 1 have also been agreed and are estimated to cost about £300,000.
The SERAS study included an estimate of costs for new road and rail infrastructure to support options for expanding Stansted. These were of the order of £800 million—£1.8 billion, for options providing one, two or three new runways. Most of the costs were for rail investment. It is not possible at this stage to estimate what share of the costs might fall to the airport developer or the timing of any schemes since that will depend on decisions in the air transport White Paper, and other decisions associated with the London-Stansted-Cambridge Growth Area.