Short cuts: fast rail transfers, at last, for Luton airport — plus Georgetown gets London link

London Despite a massive programme of investment and expansion since 2019, London Luton airport has always had an Achilles heel: rather than being beside the terminal, the airport railway station is a mile down the road. Passengers arriving by train were forced to carry their luggage outside the station, where they would wait for often crowded buses, which could add more than 20 minutes to their journey.

That is finally changing this weekend, 85 years after the airport first opened, with the launch of a new automated shuttle train connecting station and terminal in just over three minutes. Costing about £290mn, the Luton Dart has been built by the Austrian cable-car company Doppelmayr. The “cable liner double shuttle” system has no driver and is hauled by a cable, rather than having an onboard motor; similar systems are already in use to connect Piazzale Roma and Tronchetto Island in Venice, and the Mandalay Bay and Excalibur resorts in Las Vegas.

The shuttle will operate for around four hours per day during an initial testing period, before 24-hour service starts towards the end of the month. Single journeys will cost £4.90, making it the most expensive train journey in the UK in terms of distance per pound, though it will be included in tickets to the airport from central London and other stations. The journey to the terminal from St Pancras International, for example, should now be possible in less than 30 minutes.

The airport, which is the UK’s fifth-busiest, is owned by Luton borough council, which now hopes to double capacity from the current 18mn passengers per year to 32mn by 2043. The proposals envisage an expansion of the existing terminal followed by construction of a second terminal. london-luton.co.uk; lutonrising.org.uk

Georgetown A new flight between the UK and Guyana is due to begin operating this month, the first direct connection between the two countries in decades. British Airways will start flying the route twice-weekly from March 27, using a Boeing 777-200. The flights will operate from London Gatwick and take 11 and a half hours, including a one-hour stop at St Lucia (where passengers for Georgetown can remain on the plane, meaning the service is considered direct rather than connecting).

The decision to launch the route is likely to have been influenced by the rapid growth of Guyana’s oil and gas sector, but it is already proving a boon for tourism. “It’s a real game-changer for the destination,” says Claire Antell, director of Wilderness Explorers, a specialist tour operator for South America and the Caribbean which has been selling trips to Guyana since 1994. “It’s not just that it cuts journey time, it’s that it endorses the destination — the moment it was announced we saw a surge of inquiries, particularly from the luxury end of the market, which wouldn’t have considered it before.”

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