Great Western Coffee Shop

From the Yorkshire Post (https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/proposed-rail-station-too-far-from-leeds-bradford-airport-1-10188082)


Southampton and Gatwick Airport stations "work" ... Teesside Airport station does not. What about Cardiff Airport's Rhoose station, or the effectiveness in passenger numbers / taking a substantial proportion of traffic of the Rail Air links at Exeter or Bristol?

Does it matter anyway - are we going to head back from the age of the plane to the age of the train?

Luton works so well that the buses can't cope (even at 10min intervals - and their building a Birmingham airport-style people mover.

In the case of Leeds/Bradford (LBA) we are probably looking at the usual lack of ambition and/or finance on the part of both local & national government. A brief glance at the map shows that a spur from the Leeds<>Harrogate line just south of the southern portal of Bramhope tunnel would provide a fairly clear - but possibly NIMBY enraging - run to the airport terminal. Given the preponderance of farmland along the route perhaps a cut & cover tunnel for most of it would be appropriate. I would regard a 'parkway' station as an utter waste of time and money.

However, as has already been mentioned, would this be a sensible use of taxpayer moolah? LBA is not that busy and passenger numbers seem to have plateaued at around 4m (2017/18 figures). This means that each flight carries an average of 104 pax, most flights being operated by Ryanair / Jet2 737-800's which seat 189 so the load factors look not that great (Warning: Back of a fag packet calculation). With the forthcoming Northern Powerhouse Rail / HS2 (don't hold your breath) developments I suspect the roughly daily BA flights to/from LHR might be for the chop and Ryanair are cutting routes over the next 3 months. Most of the passenger traffic appears to be package holiday related and this is very likely to be affected by future government action over climate change concerns.

What seems to be missing is a proper survey of LBA passengers which asks pertinent questions concerning whether they would use an airport rail link if one was provided; I can only find documents relating to a 2016 Leeds City Council consultation which dealt solely with road access upgrades. 

Plans to change that.  From Tees Business (https://teesbusiness.co.uk/2020/01/31/mayor-outlines-40m-transport-investment-including-6m-for-airport-station/)

Bemused by the following paragraph from the specified Tees Business article:

'The funding would allow initial improvement work at the station to begin, including the removal of a platform and the existing footbridge, before further upgrades can take place.'

If that is not a massive typo of some kind, I would struggle to understand how such actions would provide any benefit. Looking at the current station layout it seems to me that provision of lifts - has it escaped the Teesside mayor's notice that air passengers often have fairly heavy luggage? - would be the obvious first step.

picked up ... BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-51340195) for example.


I am one of the handful of people who took the train to Teesside Airport Station last year ... the walked to the next station at Dinsdale rather than waiting for the next train that called.  I was the only person to get off the train (and the train manager was surprised to see me) an no-one got on.

There are two timber-built platforms and a footbridge connecting them, but the footbridge is considered unsafe and has (or, rather "had") a Network Rail chain across it, declaring it closed.  The far platform itself looked to be in non-bad order, with a waiting shelter in which could be seen the station's payphone. The platform on which I got off is just that - a platform.

The slope down off the platform leads to a turning circle ... although hansomely protected by double yellow lines, I suspect that road vehicles are as rare as calling trains.  The place has an air of abandonment, the walk to the terminal too.  And the terminal - though appearing better and open - was blocked off by a high wire fence and a locked gate, so had I been going for a flight I would have been scuppered.   A further walk took me up to the roundabout at the airport entrance - where I came out of the industrial entrance and there's anther newer and far smarter one to the terminal.

Some of my pictures from 2nd June 2019

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How ironic that BBC2 has just had Teeside Airport on Qi ...

Southampton and Gatwick both work (also Birmingham) because the station is actually at the airport. People will use airport stations only if the trip from platform to checkin does not involve another link in the transport chain - so walking a short distance and/or escalators are OK (I count the link at Brum as an escalator for this purpose), but a bus or taxi for the last bit is not. The logic is that if I’d wanted to do a bus for the last bit I would have parked and used the shuttle from the car park.

Bristol is an interesting one. Uniquely among airports, it is not convenient even for Bristol. I have no idea how much of the bus traffic from Temple Meads transfers from rail and how much originates there - mostly the latter, I suspect.

By the same token, the absurd failure to put in westward-facing curves from the Heathrow spur to the GWML (not once, but twice) would never have happened elsewhere.

Am I the only one who does not understand this?

No - I'm scratching my head too.   Only briefly, as I've been busy on the buses today.

Looking now, guessing,  Airport Junction?

Apologies, I meant Heathrow as you surmised. Now edited to make clear.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport set for £10million expansion and could be given its own railway line according to their local press.  The article below is a little confused as it refers to the project being "shovel ready" yet also points out that there is still much bureaucracy to be sorted out.

https://www.thestar.co.uk/business/doncaster-sheffield-airport-set-ps10million-expansion-and-could-be-given-its-own-railway-line-1381546

I'm sure the reason they don't advertise Cranbrook for Exeter Airport is because they do not want to improve the train service by re-instating the double track to Yeovil which would also make a decent avoiding line. One day there might be a Devon Metro.

doesn't currently work because the airport bus, Stagecoach 56/56A, bypasses Cranbrook, which is served by Stagecoach 4/4A/4B. I can't see this setup changing since there is no direct 'as the crow flies' route between the two locations; a significant double back via Clyst Honiton would be required. In the future the required brand new road just isn't going to happen.

There are bus stop facilities at Cranbrook railway station but these are not currently in use. I suppose a Cranbrook<>Airport shuttle would be a possibility but, as previously mentioned, air passengers generally avoid such multi-modal arrangements. 

It progresses - from Leeds Live (https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/fresh-images-new-railway-station-19654873)

It looks like a series of rusty dutch barns.

Maybe the new building at Reading west is not too bad after all.

Officially it's made of "pre-weathered steel where rust develops over time [and] warm burnt tones".

More fully, the design goes like this:

But, without the fancy language, you're about right. This is from the consultation brief (https://www.yourvoice.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/6889/widgets/20475/documents/8832/download), which also has a little map showing it is indeed not very close to the airport, so will depend on that shuttle bus being frequent.

As much as I still think the provision of an Airport Parkway station / shuttle bus arrangement, vice a direct rail link, is sheer lunacy I suppose it qualifies as better than nowt but I would be very grateful if somebody could explain to me the rationale behind adding 350 car parking spaces at said station, which is intended to increase rail use, when the airport is already very well stocked with car parks.

The parking is for its "Parkway" function - for getting to Leeds or Harrogate - which I suspect is more important (at least to those being asked to approve it).

It seems strange to build a new station so close to Horsforth. It would be better to build a line to the Airport from the end of the existing turnback siding at Horsforth or to move some of the Commecial/Retail units elseware and extend the car park at Horsforth.

There is also a large pub ajacent to the station if that was moved as well there would be even more space for parking without affecting any housing.

The new station will be beyond the turnback siding so ether it will miss out on some services or a new turnback will be needed. The line goes into a cutting just beyond the new station site so a new turnback will require extensive earthworks.

Putting in into context ...

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Is that the same colour as the old BR open goods wagons were painted? I thought it was a specially selected colour so that it wouldn't show how rusty they had got.