The Luton DART is a forthcoming automated guided people mover (light metro) which will connect Luton Airport Parkway station and

Luton Airport London Luton Airport is an international airport located in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, situated east of the town centre, and north of Central London. The airport is owned by London Luton Airport Ltd (LLAL), a company wholly owned by L ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

, England. DART is an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in '' NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, a ...

for Direct Air-Rail Transit. It is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in 2023. The line will replace the existing

shuttle bus A shuttle bus is a bus that travels a shorter route in comparison to most bus routes. Typically, shuttle buses travel in both directions between two points. Shuttle buses are designed to transport large groups of people who are all travellin ...

service, with the aim of reducing road congestion and improving journey times from

London St Pancras St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is ...

to the airport terminal.

History

From the 1950s and 1960s,

experienced an increase in business as a result of the growing

package holiday A package tour, package vacation, or package holiday comprises transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided such as a rental car, activities or outings during the h ...

market. Although the

Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line is a major Rail transport in Great Britain, railway line in England from London to Nottingham and Sheffield in the Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras railway station, St Pancras station via Leicest ...

passed within of the airport, there was no dedicated railway station and public transport connections to Luton Airport were limited. A

service operated from

Luton railway station Luton railway station is located in the town centre of Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The station is about three minutes' walk from The Mall Shopping Centre. It is situated on the Midland Main Line and is operated by Thameslink. History Luto ...

, to convey rail passengers from

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable a ...

town centre to the airport terminal.

Luton Airport Parkway railway station Luton Airport Parkway railway station is on the Midland Main Line in England, serving south Luton and Luton Airport in Bedfordshire. It is situated in Park Town, Luton, and is down the line from London St Pancras between to the south and to ...

opened in 1999, providing rail connections from Luton Airport to central and south London,

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after ...

and , as well as the Midland Mainline Routes to the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level, ITL for Statistics, statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area tradi ...

. Although the new station was closer to the airport ( to the west), it was still necessary to run a shuttle bus transfer service. The shuttle bus was considered to be unsatisfactory, and proposals were developed to replace the bus service with a new rail link. The situation of Luton Airport Parkway station approximately downhill from the airport presented engineering challenges to building a heavy rail

spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to ba ...

over the short distance to the airport terminal. In April 2016, London Luton Airport Ltd (LLAL) announced a scheme to create a light rail/ automated guided people mover connection between the airport and Luton Airport Parkway station.Luton airport peoplemover plan announced
'' Railway Gazette International'' 15 April 2016 It is envisaged that the introduction of a light-rail link would reduce the journey time between London St Pancras and the airport terminal to less than 30 minutes.

Construction

The Luton DART link was approved by

Luton Borough Council Luton Borough Council (also known as LBC, or Luton Council) is the local authority of Luton, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It is a member of the East of England ...

in June 2017. Construction work commenced in April 2018, contracted to a

VolkerFitzpatrick VolkerRail is a specialist railway infrastructure services company based in Doncaster, England, providing services across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is wholly owned by Netherlands-based VolkerWessels, a multi-disciplinary construction an ...

Kier Group Kier Group plc is a British construction, services and property group active in building and civil engineering, support services, and the Private Finance Initiative. Founded in 1928 in Stoke-on-Trent it initially specialised in concrete enginee ...

joint venture c. The project involves construction of bridges over the

A1081 road The A1081 is a road in the south of England. It starts at Luton Airport in Bedfordshire and runs to High Barnet in Greater London via Harpenden, St Albans and London Colney, a distance of around . For most of its length, the A1081 follows the ...

and tunnels, along with two stations in phase 1. The first station is being built at Bartlett Square in Napier Park on the east side of Luton Airport Parkway station, and the final station at the airport. In 2018, it was announced that the system would be a

Cable Liner The Cable Liner is a range of automated people mover products designed by Doppelmayr Cable Car for use at airports, in city centers, intermodal passenger transport connections, park and ride facilities, campuses, resorts and amusement parks. ...

, manufactured by the Austrian transit manufacturer,

Doppelmayr Cable Car Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group is an international manufacturer of ropeways and people movers for ski areas, urban transport, amusement parks, and material handling systems. As of 2019, the group have produced over 15,000 installations in 96 countr ...

(DCC), who also have a contract to operate the system for the first five years. The vehicles will be built by the Austrian cabin manufacturer, Carvatech. In December 2019, a ready-constructed, -long, 1,000-tonne curved bridge was moved into place over the A1081 road on large jacks. Construction work on the line was halted briefly in April 2020 during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

over concerns related to Coronavirus Health Protection Regulations, but has since resumed after a safety assessment. The cable propulsion system was completed in February 2020 and work has now begun to install the people mover vehicles on the guide rails. A new light rail terminus building is currently under construction next to the Parkway station. The DART platforms will be located on a new upper level above the current station, and these will be connected to the main-line rail platforms via a new footbridge with new lifts and escalators. Testing of the transit vehicles began in 2021. In August of that year, reports emerged of problems experienced with the traction or the pulley system during testing, and that a DART vehicle had become derailed. This was denied by LLAL. The system was originally scheduled to open in 2021. Following delays resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the opening date was revised to late 2022. The planned opening has since been delayed due to further technical testing and development of the ticketing system and the DART is now expected to come into service in 2023. On 6 December 2022,

King Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

visited the Luton DART terminal station during a royal visit to the town. He unveiled a plaque commemorating his visit before travelling on the new transit system.

Route

Luton Airport Parkway stn shuttle entrance under construction Feb 2020

The DART line will commence at a purpose-built station (currently under construction) adjoining

, which will provide an interchange with

East Midlands Railway Abellio East Midlands Limited, trading as East Midlands Railway (EMR), is a train operating company in England, owned by Abellio, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. History In March 2017, the Department for Transport a ...

and

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...

passenger rail services. DART vehicles will head south-eastwards along a

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide va ...

. After crossing the

, the vehicles will curve eastwards along a

cutting Cutting is the separation or opening of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force. Implements commonly used for cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the scalpel and ...

and concrete trough before entering a

cut-and-cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

tunnel under the

airport apron The airport apron, apron, flight line, ramp, or tarmac is the area of an airport where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled, boarded, or maintained. Although the use of the apron is covered by regulations, such as lighting on veh ...

. The eastern terminus will be at a new subterranean Central Terminal station underneath the current drop-off area in front of the terminal building.

Operation

Luton DART will be operated by a new

subsidiary company A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a sa ...

, wholly owned by London Luton Airport Limited (LLAL, trading as Luton Rising). It is envisaged that the Luton DART link will operate 24 hours a day. In 2016, LLAL were negotiating with Transport for London (TfL) and the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The ...

with the aim of streamlining ticketing arrangements by enabling

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsung P ...

for combined rail and DART journeys, with the possible inclusion of DART on TfL's

Oyster Card The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London (and certain areas around it) in England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport ...

payment system. LLAL's 2018 Surface Access Strategy document stated that "Oyster card services are planned to be introduced at Luton Airport Parkway Railway Station and will also cover the DART system, facilitating seamless journeys between LLA and London." In October 2022 it was announced that the single fare for the DART would be £4.90, with concessions for Luton residents and free travel for holders of concessionary travel passes. This represents an increase of 158% compared to the existing shuttle bus fare.

Future extension

As part of the proposals for the expansion of Luton Airport, it is envisaged that the DART line would be extended eastwards to terminate at a new station serving Terminal 2.

References

External links

* Video simulation: * Mid-construction drone footage: {{UK light rail Airport people mover systems in the United Kingdom Proposed railway lines in England Transport in Luton/Dunstable Urban Area Luton Airport Cable Liner people movers 2023 in rail transport