UK Tories plan railway instead of bigger Heathrow

By Tim Castle

BIRMINGHAM, England, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Britain's main opposition Conservatives would scrap a third runway at Heathrow airport and instead build a new rail line between London and northern England, a party official said on Monday.

Conservative transport spokeswoman Theresa Villiers told the Guardian newspaper the 20 billion pound high speed railway would cut 66,000 flights a year, some 44 percent of the capacity of the proposed runway.

"This is a seriously green decision," she said. "A few years ago it would have been inconceivable for the leader of the Conservative party to say no to a third runway and putting the brakes on Heathrow expansion."

Opinion polls suggest the centre-right Conservatives are on course to return to power at the next election, due within 18 months.

Conservative leader David Cameron has already rejected the case for a third runway at Heathrow on environmental grounds, upsetting business leaders who say the economy will suffer if the airport is not enlarged.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour government is considering its response to a public consultation on expanding the airport, the world's busiest with 68 million passengers passing through each year.

The Times reported last week that the government intended to approve the extra runway before the end of the year, despite opposition from environmental groups and residents in the flight path of the airport, situated to the west of the capital.

The Conservative plans will be detailed later at the party's conference in Birmingham.

The railway would link London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, as well as connecting to the Eurostar service to Paris.

A Conservative government would spend 15.6 billion pounds to build the new line between 2015 and 2027, with the remaining 4.4 billion to come from the private sector.

Britain's Competition Commission last month told Heathrow operator BAA to sell two of its three airports around London, which also include Gatwick to the south and Stansted in the east.

BAA, owned by Spain's Ferrovial, is resisting the move, saying it will sell only Gatwick.