GRAVESEND residents will have a direct rail link to Heathrow Airport, the City and London's West End if a multi-million pound project goes south to the Thames Gateway.
Proposals to link east London with Heathrow, which may include Gravesham and Dartford, will be discussed by Gravesham councillors at a meeting of the Kent Thameside Joint Executive Committee.
The committee includes Dartford Council and Kent County Council (KCC) and it will discuss a range of options for the future of public transport in the Thames Gateway, tonight.
One item up for discussion is the £150m Crossrail project which includes the option to hook up with the north Kent line through Dartford and Gravesend and on towards Medway.
A new company, Cross London Rail Links (CLRL) made up of Transport for London (TfL) and the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) has been set up to oversee the entire Crossrail project.
One of the joint executive members, KCC's lead member for strategic planning who represents Gravesham Rural, Councillor Frank Gibson, said: "One benefit would be passengers wouldn't have to change trains all the way to Heathrow.
"We will be putting our case to CLRL, in the future but first we will have to wait to see if government funding is made available."
An announcement from CLRL on the funding for the Thames gateway option is expected in early 2002.
A steering group of key members of TfL and SRA met to decide the future of the project and looked at options including bringing the line south of the river to the Thames Gateway, in October.
December 11, 2001 10:47
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