Luton DART (Direct Air-Rail Transit) is a cable-hauled, electrically-powered, driverless service that connects the terminal at London Luton Airport with Luton Airport Parkway railway station, giving passengers a seamless transition between two trains rather than having to take a bus. From Luton Airport Parkway the Airport Express can take passengers to London St Pancras Station in 30 minutes via EMR’s Airport Express.
King Charles came up to Luton to officiate at the DART’s opening ceremony in December 2022 (and got an egg thrown at him).
Touted in the Guardian as ‘the most expensive train in Britain’ for its £5 price tag for a 2.2km journey, it has nevertheless proved popular and by August 2023, only five months later, over a million passengers had already used the service.
Luton Airport is owned by Luton Rising, which in turn is owned entirely by Luton Council as its sole shareholder. Consequently, the airport works much like a social enterprise with a good chunk of the profits ploughed back into local authority frontline services and spread between voluntary organisations and charities in Luton.
It takes about two and a half minutes to do the Dart trip and I videoed some of it and it certainly achieves quite a bit of variety in the short journey.
First, it runs along a long viaduct, before transitioning onto a bridge that runs over a dual carriageway.
It meanders past Luton Airport’s landing lights, through a cut and fill section before entering a long concrete base trough section. It completes its journey by going underground, dipping beneath the airport’s taxiway and into a new Central Terminal station. From there you take the escalator up to confront the airport drop-off area.
At both ends of the track sit newly built, very glass and yellow DART station terminals.
Off behind the Central Terminal Station I saw a multi-storey car park with fire damage and burned out vehicles still visible.
At the end of March 2024 a blaze tore through the nearby car park, resulting in a conflagration which escalated dramatically into a major incident. Fortunately, nobody was injured and the fire was brought under control before it reached the Luton DART. The carpark is now due to be demolished.
Well, if the DART hadn’t yet incentivised people to ditch their cars for trains, perhaps the carpark fire helped?
David was manning the DART tickets barriers by Luton Airport Parkway; opening barriers when necessary, answering questions and giving directions. When he had a moment, I told him about my project and he sent me to see someone at the recently opened ‘You Me Sushi’ at Luton Town Centre. He said he was born and bred in Luton and has been working at the DART since it opened.
He told me to put my DART train ticket on the montage.
Pocket Number 30: Ash at You Me Sushi >>
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