Leeds Bradford: Airport Road, Rail & Access Issues

[airforced]

As an interested, but geographically distant observer, this descision sounds very much like LCC are reverting to tyrpe, ie afraid to invest on infrastructure if it has anything to do with LBA, which if true ignores the benefits to those areas surrounding the airport and those travelling to it. End result, more journeys to MAN using the overstretched M62 etc whilst saving the Council a few bob. Sometimes nothing changes does it?

 

[lbaspotter]

So this what we are left with after 2 Public Consultations.
Don't won't to go political but, "what a set of muppets Leeds City Council have become" Thanks a bloodly lot Alex Sobel & Judith Blake.

Here's layout map of the new proposal by LeedsCity Council for its new North-West travel hub at Leeds/Bradford Airport

For full detls see: https://news.leeds.gov.uk/new-north...plans-to-be-considered-by-senior-councillors/

 

[Len Fish]

Problem is these protesting minorities are very vocal whilst the silent majority who may well be in favour are just that, silent, enabling the Council to conveniently proclaim “look no support”.

 

[lbaspotter]

Gonzo and Fozzie could do a much better job.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Alex Sobel, who has just been re-elected in Leeds North West, says increasing passenger numbers at any of the UK's airports is incompatible with tackling the climate crisis.

So whilst the rest of the world gets on with expanding its aviation (China planning 200 new airports in the next 15 years and India 100 for example) the UK will have to stick on what its airports can currently handle. How realistic is that for the country's economy?

The forecast increase in UK population in the next decade or two alone will mean there will be many more people who want to fly.

As with the actress Thompson and the Green Party senior representative (I forget her name) who are both shouting at everyone to fly less, they are special cases when they want to fly as they need to in connection with attending a climate change rally or to visit a son in the USA.

I wonder if Sobel never flies. If he does you can be sure it will be a special case because he is so important to the world that he must use air transport.

If people practise what they preach I will respect their opinions but not those who indulge in pure hypocrisy.

 

[LBA8098]

Does anybody think the proposed terminal extension will be at risk based on the link road decision?

 

[Bigman]

I would not be at all surprised. Another excuse not to dish out the brass. I hope that all these nay-sayers enjoy their drives over to Manchester Airport while polluting Saddleworth Moor with even more emissions. Good luck with the train journeys too!!! TPE and Northern Fail are a total f@*k job at the moment with no sign of improvements.

 

[LBA4EVER]

article in the YEP saying link rd scrapped? this some sort of joke? what on earth is going on, so years of even more clogged up rds esp the a65, more pollution then having a link rd, angry drivers, im just totally lost for words!! 🤢 🤢

 

[LBA4EVER]

What a load of s**t! what a joke of a council! all I can say is TOTAL GRIDLOCK on the roads and it will get worse as the city gets more populated!

 

[Len Fish]

Alex Sobel, who has just been re-elected in Leeds North West, says increasing passenger numbers at any of the UK's airports is incompatible with tackling the climate crisis.

So whilst the rest of the world gets on with expanding its aviation (China planning 200 new airports in the next 15 years and India 100 for example) the UK will have to stick on what its airports can currently handle. How realistic is that for the country's economy.

That’s precisely it, they conveniently ignore the link between aviation, economic activity and the wealth and jobs that brings. These people are dangerous.

 

[Aviador]

@hodgestuart Absolutely. The silence is deafening.

 

[a300boy]

Just what we needed another betrayal by the LCC and they are now actively opposing any development ! Great place we live in and we wonder why Manchester booms and we collapse. What chance do we have to progress our hopes.

 

[a300boy]

On a personal note I believe the decision and stance for the future makes it much more likely they will build house anywhere they can to recover the capital spent on a now dead duck.
It will have to be an exceptional announcement in January to recover even a morsel of optimism.

 

[Tarn Spotter]

As a local resident not sure this is about the airport, air pollution in the local area is above government targets and in my view more to do with the motorists then aircraft.
This is an awful plan locally, whilst the railway station good news the lack of ability to greatly reduce local traffic has been ignored.
Not sure the locals will agree this is a good plan and i think the arguments far from over.
Accept the airport is a great target, but it is not the main problem.
I do question any infrastructure plans at the moment, we need to learn the lessons of our mistakes over the last decade, the Oldham to Manchester tram system has done the opposite of what it was built for and their are many other similar cases.
Until we have a regional plan and hopefully a Leeds Andy Burnham type Mayor, piecemeal not the option.
Will be hard work to get locals to see the big picture, remember the local fights I had in the late 80's campaigning to extend flying hours at the airport, my next door neighbours never spoke to be in the next 15 years, til i moved.
Think there is a huge job for the airport to do with keeping the locals onside, i.e. ensuring all buses, private hire vehicles are electric within say the next 5 years, car park charging points, maybe free local buses from stations etc, making it look as if they are trying to reduce traffic and improve air quality, set even lower aircraft noise targets, its not all about passenger numbers.

 

[rmac]

I cannot see the logic in cancelling the link road from the A65. It would reduce the amount of traffic up to Rawdon traffic lights and on to the airport. This backward thinking reminds me of the '80's in Scotland where link roads, by=passes etc were all frowned on. Now decades on whilst we have more traffic admittedly it flows better as they are all built now resulting in less congestion. Years ago there was a lobby saying we did not need the Edinburgh By=pass - well it was completed in fact many say it should have been 3 lane and not 2. A huge amount of road building has been done in Scotland and continues. Recently a plan for a north link road and second River Tay crossing from the A9 (which is being dualled anyway) is progressing well. I hear no cries of STOP we do not need it, no protests etc. And Perth is much smaller than Leeds! Park and Ride schemes are very popular -just look at what Edinburgh now has. Also the tram from the airport and, starting this month is being extended to the harbour area. So what is Leeds doing? I find it very sad and in many ways I am glad to live north of the border. Consider more people live in Yorkshire than the whole of Scotland and Leeds is far bigger than Edinburgh's half million yet Edinburgh airport is handling coming on for 4 times the amount LBA handles. Even Bradford's population is not that far behind Edinburgh!
New routes are being added all the time, Qatar may go to twice daily and in competition with Emirates. I know it is difficult to compare EDI with LBA, many factors exist, MAN for instance however LBA should be doing far better and the local councillors, MP's etc should be taking the lead for the economic benefits a thriving airport can and will bring. At least the parkway station seems to be going ahead but the link road is also needed. The cost is reasonable especially compared to the billions spent in Scotland in the last few years!

 

[White Heather]

I am getting a distinct deja vu feeling here with this decision. Yet again Leeds City Council have basically bottled it. Five Years of planning and various consultations for three schemes and they end up doing none of them. Yes, the station is a good thing and it is good to see it is still on the table - but if they do go ahead and also have the park and ride then they will need a new road from the A658 to access it, and they have just binned one! It is hard to see how it will work now unless they widen and lengthen White House Lane past the airport and then across Scotland Lane, but all that will do is pour more traffic heading for the park and ride (who are not heading to the airport) right past the airport's front door. It is barmy.

As for the lack of support, the devil is in the detail. Of all the options, it was Option A, that got 40% support, which isn't bad in my view considering their were three to choose from, but no surprise most of the opposition to that scheme, and the other two, were from those living nearby. NIMBYs strike again, Pathetic. I didn't see the local opposition to the East Leeds Orbital route swaying the Council but of course that doesn't affect NW Leeds, which seems to be the one area of Leeds that Leeds City Council cannot deal with. It is blatantly obvious to me that this is largely about the airport. The people who live in the area of the airport loved to claim that it was not a suitable airport for expansion because the infrastructure around it was inadequate. They never imagined that anyone would actually come up with a scheme to correct that but when they did, they objected to all three options. Yet again, for the umpteenth time in my lifetime, the Council have bottled it and given way to these people. Frankly it makes me almost ashamed to come from this great city and increases my resolve to use my retirement by moving away. No surprise of course that 50% supported the rail terminal as that is just about far enough away from most of these people to not bother them, but frankly it amazes me that only half the people even wanted a rail station. What the hell is the matter with people on this side of the city??

I rather suspect that the airport management will have heard on the grapevine about this decision before today. Nothing was said about the road scheme at the last meeting and when it was last mentioned it had slipped back from 2022 to 2026 at the earliest. I just hope that it doesn't de-rail their plans but being honest about it, I would hardly blame them if they canned their plans or scaled them back. Why bother with large investments in a facility that Leeds Council clearly isn't prepared to invest in itself through adequate road access. I am not sure whether the road scheme was an assumption made by the airport and that their plans were based on a new road being built or not, but I guess we will now find out.

As an avid supporter of the airport, although one getting weary of all the endless disappointments associated with it. I have to say that today's news, which I heard on the car radio whilst queuing in traffic (in Yeadon!), has put a real dampener on Christmas. Not my favourite time of year to start with but this is the last straw. What we have found yet again though is the importance of supporting a proposal by writing a letter. If more negative responses are received to a proposal than positive, don't be surprised if the lily livered council use it as an excuse to bottle it again. They have done it now on a number of occasions - and will do it again. As far as this road scheme is concerned, it is now too late and that horse has bolted.

 

[a300boy]

Meanwhile this area drifts further behind North West and South Yorkshire who have a nice new link road to their airport.
Dont let it spoil your Christmas WH we might be able to smile once we have some potential good news in January.

 

[Seasider]

I agree with a330boy, it is not all gloom and doom. I have kept out of this discussion as I live on the East Coast so don't feel qualified to comment. There are still plenty of places that you can get direct from LBA. I get the impression from reading on here that if the Airport provides an upgraded Terminal, Jet 2 will offer more expansion. They pride themselves on their customer service so if customers are telling them they do not enjoy the "airport experience" they will not expand.
I think the key point is to get an improved Terminal, Jet2 expand and hopefully other airlines will follow especially one offering business flights. By that time the rail link will be in place.

I can remember Sundays when there only 2 flights - both to LHR.

 

[LBA4EVER]

I am getting a distinct deja vu feeling here with this decision. Yet again Leeds City Council have basically bottled it. Five Years of planning and various consultations for three schemes and they end up doing none of them. Yes, the station is a good thing and it is good to see it is still on the table - but if they do go ahead and also have the park and ride then they will need a new road from the A658 to access it, and they have just binned one! It is hard to see how it will work now unless they widen and lengthen White House Lane past the airport and then across Scotland Lane, but all that will do is pour more traffic heading for the park and ride (who are not heading to the airport) right past the airport's front door. It is barmy.

As for the lack of support, the devil is in the detail. Of all the options, it was Option A, that got 40% support, which isn't bad in my view considering their were three to choose from, but no surprise most of the opposition to that scheme, and the other two, were from those living nearby. NIMBYs strike again, Pathetic. I didn't see the local opposition to the East Leeds Orbital route swaying the Council but of course that doesn't affect NW Leeds, which seems to be the one area of Leeds that Leeds City Council cannot deal with. It is blatantly obvious to me that this is largely about the airport. The people who live in the area of the airport loved to claim that it was not a suitable airport for expansion because the infrastructure around it was inadequate. They never imagined that anyone would actually come up with a scheme to correct that but when they did, they objected to all three options. Yet again, for the umpteenth time in my lifetime, the Council have bottled it and given way to these people. Frankly it makes me almost ashamed to come from this great city and increases my resolve to use my retirement by moving away. No surprise of course that 50% supported the rail terminal as that is just about far enough away from most of these people to not bother them, but frankly it amazes me that only half the people even wanted a rail station. What the hell is the matter with people on this side of the city??

I rather suspect that the airport management will have heard on the grapevine about this decision before today. Nothing was said about the road scheme at the last meeting and when it was last mentioned it had slipped back from 2022 to 2026 at the earliest. I just hope that it doesn't de-rail their plans but being honest about it, I would hardly blame them if they canned their plans or scaled them back. Why bother with large investments in a facility that Leeds Council clearly isn't prepared to invest in itself through adequate road access. I am not sure whether the road scheme was an assumption made by the airport and that their plans were based on a new road being built or not, but I guess we will now find out.

As an avid supporter of the airport, although one getting weary of all the endless disappointments associated with it. I have to say that today's news, which I heard on the car radio whilst queuing in traffic (in Yeadon!), has put a real dampener on Christmas. Not my favourite time of year to start with but this is the last straw. What we have found yet again though is the importance of supporting a proposal by writing a letter. If more negative responses are received to a proposal than positive, don't be surprised if the lily livered council use it as an excuse to bottle it again. They have done it now on a number of occasions - and will do it again. As far as this road scheme is concerned, it is now too late and that horse has bolted.

Tell me about WH! whilst ive been stuck in traffic all day the news today has really P***** me off and put a downer on today!

 

[Peter Barber]

I am pretty sure that LCC’s new plan will be considering adding more bicycle lanes and dedicated bicycle routes only, for the Yorkshire Airlines passengers. This will also negate the need for large car parking lots, as the new bicycle parking areas with bike racks take up less room, this will allow for new low cost NIMBY housing estates to be built.

As part of the low cost terminal renovation, a new working class lounge with outside WC could be built on the cheap for the new clientele, which I am sure would be called the “Flat Cap Lounge”. The lounge will have special provisions for passengers whippets and ferrets, and could even have an area for passengers to clean their clogs and shawls from the polluted sky’s caused by the twenty minute daily flight around Yorkshire. No need for flying elsewhere, because anything outside Yorkshire is not worth bloody visiting

Unfortunately the mentality and narrow minded thinking of the LCC and many of their supporters has not changed since the 70’s, when the first runway extension was turned down and politicians listened to the lunacy of such groups as LACAN, who were very active. There is, and has always been a Luddite mentality when it comes to change in Yorkshire, and Leeds will always be a second rate city as long as this mentality exists.

As a supporter of the airport and a person that had spent much of my early life at the airport, this news makes me ashamed to be associated with the area!