Avery Associates along with London planning expert Brian Waters and transport consultancy guru Michael Schabas propose extending Crossrail to the Foster-designed Stansted terminal and enlarging the airport to create a new UK air travel hub in Essex.
This brings together Brian’s knowledge as team leader for the Hampstead Garden Suburb conservation plan at Shankland/Cox and Bryan’s concept for ‘Wilderness City’ which is a modern interpretation of Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City movement.
Stansted has the advantage of not overlapping with the flight paths of Heathrow and Gatwick. It also meets the London Mayor’s demand for expansion of the city and its infrastructure to the East. The development and economic potential of the ‘London-Cambridge Corridor’ has recently been formally recognised and Stansted will be a key element in the strategic thinking which this implies.
We envisage Crossrail running fast, probably non-stop, from Canary Wharf or Stratford into the existing station under the airport. The present terminal will be upgraded and expanded to meet the needs of long-haul international passengers and their airlines while new simple terminal pavilions will be built for the low-cost airlines, dedicated to the larger of these. Their point-to-point passengers will be able to feed the other carriers, though this is not seen as a primary objective.