THE Stansted Express is one of those double-speak brands of which marketing types are so fond. The “Express” is in reality a grimy train which takes nearly 50 minutes to trundle the 30 miles from central London to Stansted Airport, through greenbelt countryside north of London. Stansted is London’s fourth-busiest airport, carrying around 20m passengers a year. It is a modern and pleasant base for budget airlines, but it needs a better rail link. Britain’s Department for Transport (DfT) is currently seeking bidders to take over the route, currently operated by East Anglia, from October 2016.

This week, the airport's owners argued in an official filing that the next operator of the franchise should commit to a more frequent and faster service. It is still early in the procurement process, however better links would have obvious benefits. Fewer people driving to catch a plane would suit everyone, not least the airport itself. Stansted wants to expand but is facing local opposition. Stop Stansted Expansion, a local campaigning group, worries that, among many other things, growth would mean snarled roads and more traffic pollution. Although a better rail link would not placate them, it would be a start.

Stansted management's main requests are perfectly reasonable: improving the rail infrastructure to take the journey time to 40 minutes, upgrading payment-processing technology and an early-morning train from London seven days a week, with a look towards expanding to 24-hour service at some point in the future.

Ideally, rather than looking at a region's rail, road and airport infrastructure needs separately, lawmakers and regulators should consider them all as part of a bigger whole. Each form of transport should work efficiently not only on its own, but also in concert with the others. That means embracing things like smartcard technology, easy transfers, and quick and intuitive ticketing. It also means awarding crucial transportation contracts to firms that are committed to working with their regional partners. Let's hope DfT listens to what Stansted's owners have to say.