One of the region’s busiest stretches of motorway will not be able to cope with the new HS2 station next to Birmingham Airport, bosses have warned.
Birmingham Airport said Junction 6 of the M42 was already heavily congested and sometimes meant passengers missed flights because they could not arrive at the airport on time.
The problem would be made even worse when the planned new high speed rail line was up and running, the airport claimed.
The HS2 line will feature a new station near the airport, as well as terminating at Curzon Street in Birmingham city centre.
Junction 6 connects the M42 with the A45 and is used by drivers heading to east Birmingham, the NEC, Birmingham Airport and Coventry.
It is one of the busiest junctions of the West Midlands motorway network, carrying up to 3,500 vehicles per hour. A £7.4 million scheme to improve the junction began in 2014.
Airport bosses issued the warning in a paper submitted to the House of Commons Transport Committee, which is conducting an inquiry into access to airports.
They called for “a new junction on the M42 to serve the airport and reduce existing congestion on Junction 6. Currently Junction 6 is often heavily congested resulting in prolonged journeys for passengers that can lead to them missing flights”.
The airport also urged the Department for Transport to think again about the name of the proposed new HS2 station.
It is currently due to be called Birmingham Interchange, but the airport said: “In order to create a single transport hub for HS2, Birmingham Airport also does not consider the proposed HS2 station name ‘Birmingham Interchange’ appropriate. It fails to indicate the station would serve Birmingham Airport and could wrongly indicate that it is located within Birmingham City Centre.”
But HS2 will help the airport to win new passengers by effectively becoming a ‘local’ airport even for the south of England, managers said.
They said: “When complete, HS2 could enable Birmingham to capture around 750,000 additional passengers or around eight per cent of its current passenger throughput by enlarging its catchment area.
“This will increase the economic footprint of the airport in the West Midlands bringing additional economic impacts... this impact could be around £34 million in GVA per year and around 950 jobs.”
