Road, Rail & Access Issues

[whoshotjimmi]

Couple of points.

Firstly, in an ideal world, options A, B AND C would be taken up as they are all desperately needed. In my cynical mind, however, I think the final option chosen will be option C, simply because it will cost less to implement than options A or B. Having said that, the council's own report into access in the area recommended option A.

Secondly, now that the Thornbury and Rodley roundabout works have been completed, I think it is appropriate to start commenting on how this has affected the area. Having driven along these routes many times since completion, it is obvious that the Thornbury system has been a success and the traffic now flows much more freely throughout the day. It is also painfully clear that that the Rodley system has not been a success. The traffic is as bad now on the approach from Pudsey as it always has been. Part of me thinks that people just haven't got used to the road layout yet and that, with time, things will improve. But the complete lack of improvement as things stand on the ring road has me worried.

I am hopeful that the Horsforth improvements will be a success but, as with the Rodley roundabout, the fundamental issue (lack of capacity onto the ring road towards Rodley) does not appear to have been addressed.

 

[Aviador]

The roundabout at Rodley is something I have been watching very closely over recent weeks. I've used the Rodley roundabout a few times and I've noticed the traffic still queuing as it always has done. People don't seem to realise that there is an extra lane to use to go straight on. I've sailed straight through passing all the traffic. I've not used the Thornbury system yet as I've just become acustom to avoiding that route as much as possible but i'll give it a go next time I'm heading West.

As for the link road I don't see how any option other than option A would work. Option B is basically an upgrade of Bayton Lane but the traffic lights at the Yeadon end would be a major hindrance, not to mention the additional commuter traffic that route would attract. Option C is a non-starter. I simply don't see the point of following a route that is the primary cause of the traffic congestion in the first place. Option C would require the most compulsory purchase of property to enable widening of the roads. It would also pass Benton Park High School which would also be a huge concern.

 

[lbaspotter]

That's strange as its totally different from my prospective of it now! I have to use the Rodley roundabout most morings between 7:30 and 8 and have noticed a big change coming from the Rodley Town Street / Bagley Lane direction onto the new road layout.
Before the works where completed we use to sit in traffic for a good 10 to 15 minutes, some times even longer to get onto the roundabout. But I can honestly say since the lights were turned on, the traffic has been totally cut back and we normally now only cue for about 3-4 minutes max, mainly to wait for lights to change green.

Oh the Thornbury barracks junction is I agree 100% times better than it use to be. No more cues of traffic at peak times.

Let's just hope the same can be said about the Horsforth roundabout when it's finally completed. Don't know if it's just me but Construction of it seems to have come to a complete stand still just recently for some reason?

 

[Aviador]

The lights at Horsforth have been put up over the last few days so they're not too far off from switching them on.

 

[Aviador]

Since my last post on Thursday the new traffic control lights at the Horsforth roundabout have been switched on. I've managed to use the new set-up several times since Thursday and on each occasion the traffic has been significantly better than it was prior to the traffic control system although each time I have used it is has been outside of rush hour. The wife used it at 7am on Friday morning and unfortunately she reported back saying the traffic was far worse than before causing traffic to turn off to go through Rawdon village. In any case, it seems much safer.

 

[Moo2009]

Hi Aviador , I used the roundabout Friday also about 7am and it was just a mess a lot worse than before. The ring road needs to be duel all the way down the hill towards Rodley as this seemed to be causing the bottleneck

 

[whoshotjimmi]

This was precisely my point in my last post. The fundamental problem is the lack of capacity coming off the roundabout and this has not been addressed at all, even though it would have been incredibly easy to do so. Really bad planning.

Incidentally, since Lbaspotter had been so buoyant about the Rodley roundabout, I decided to approach it from Rodley the other morning when I was working in North West Leeds for the day. I thought it had been a failure before but I now genuinely believe it to be a complete disaster. I have never seen traffic that bad on the approach to Rodley roundabout in all my 30 years of life. I was very late to work as a result.

Hopefully, there will be a review period for both the Rodley and Horsforth systems and the necessary improvements will be put into place. And hopefully the person who decided the plans would work will not be allowed to make such a decision in future.

Of course, the most important thing with regards to this forum is that access to the airport has not been improved as a result. There was a real opportunity for change here and it has been completely missed.

 

[Aviador]

I can see what you're saying whoshotjimmi but it is stil early day yet. I imagine the highways department will be altering the timings of the lights for few weeks to come so the situation may improve on what we have at the moment. Lets hope so anyway.

I am sure you are right though in that the solution must be to dual the entire section. I do believe that is the eventual plan but when the council intend to impliment it is another thing.

 

[ls27]

I was told some years ago before I retired that the problem was the width of the bridges at the bottom of the hill they and would inhibit the width of the carriageway. My answer was put pedestrian bridges outside the curteledge of the existing highway. That was discounted on cost grounds!

 

[Tarn Spotter]

As the 46 traffic lights system in the centre of Beverley showed last week, traffic flows better when no lights and motorists have to concentrate on each other not lights and road markings
nothing will improve airport routes until a A65 and A658 by passes

 

[cmj]

As the 46 traffic lights system in the centre of Beverley showed last week, traffic flows better when no lights and motorists have to concentrate on each other not lights and road markings
nothing will improve airport routes until a A65 and A658 by passes

When the light first break, everyone is in a bit of a state of "uh.. what now?" so are more cautious. If you remove all the lights, I suspect it will just descend into chaos.

 

[Aviador]

Aireborough with a population of in excess of 35,000 a suburb of the city of Leeds with a population greater than 700,000.

Beverly a large town with a population of just over 30,000

I'm not convinced it's a fair comparison comparing the traffic in Beverly with a large suburb of Leeds.

The traffic may well have flowed better without traffic lights but I doubt the volume of traffic in Beverly is anywhere near that of the A65 which is one of the busiest roads in Leeds.

Interesting, a further 2000 homes are planned in the Aireborough area over the next few years. That's potentially 8000 more people, potentially 4000 more cars and potentially 4000 more school places required.

There are no plans for a Airborough by-pass, no plans for more schools, doctors surgeries or any other services the area needs to cope with so many new people in the area.

 

[Bigman]

As someone who has to suffer Horsforth roundabout every evening, my initial observation is that the traffic is flowing much better. For the last six months I have had to suffer tailbacks going back to the Tescos on New Road Side. The resultant journey from Tescos to the roundabout has been taking at least 15 minutes to do less than 1 mile. It is now taking less than 5 minutes now!!! Time will tell if this gets worse again!!

 

[Aviador]

I had a wander down to the new Apperley Bridge railway station to see how the work is progressing. It's looking like the station will be opening very soon as workmen are just doing the finishing touches. For those of you who haven't passed through the area recently, the new station has it's own dedicated traffic light controlled junction.

View media item 3694Apperley Bridge railway station road junction, by Aviador, hosted on Forums4airports.com

View media item 3691Apperley Bridge railway station, by Aviador, hosted on Forums4airports.com

I had a peep at the car park on foot beyond the barriers where finishing touches were being carried out. This photo was taken from the other side of railway line so it doesn't really show the scale of the new station.

View media item 3692Apperley Bridge railway station car park, by Aviador, hosted on Forums4airports.com

The old bridge is being used as the crossing point to get from the car park to the Leeds bound platform 1.
View media item 3693Apperley Bridge railway station bridge linking to platform 1, by Aviador, hosted on Forums4airports.com

What's more, the roads leading to the new station are idea for bus access so I imagine the airport will be keen to establish a road based connection.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Is this on the Leeds to Harrogate line?

 

[Aviador]

Is this on the Leeds to Harrogate line?

No TheLocalYokel, It's on the Bradford Foster Square and Skipton Line.

There are three lines which run close to LBA. The Harrogate line passes closest at approximately half a mile to the East of the terminal building. The Ilkley line runs about two miles to the West/North West near the A65 and the Skipton/Bradford line runs approximately 2 and a half miles to the South West of the terminal close to the A658.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Many thanks.

I travelled on the Leeds-Harrogate line a couple of times last year and wondered whether this new station was very close to LBA.

 

[Aviador]

When you exited the long tunnel at the Leeds end, you will have been at the nearest point to the airport.

Just found this PDF document containing some interesting bits of information including various tram train options to the airport. Various other bits of information regarding the proposed link road etc.

PDF

 

[whoshotjimmi]

This morning's Yorkshire Post article on the developments down the road at Doncaster heavily references the new link road which is cutting 20 minutes from the journey to the airport from Sheffield.

It is clear that the improved access is being touted as a major step forward for the airport and, reading between the lines, this appears to have been more than just a bit part player in securing the deal.

This makes it imperative that LBA gets as noisily involved as possible when it comes to any future decision to improve the road access to the airport. With so many options on the doorstep and so many alternative means of travel, LBA cannot afford to be left behind.

 

[scottrhino]

Thats an interesting post whoshotjimmi. We all know the transportation to LBIA isn't great but if you put the destinations in people will travel to use these regardless of the 20 minutes journey time saved. If Jet 2 are £70 cheaper than Flybe then this makes the decision for them not necessarily the journey time.

Furthermore, it's great from the M18 to Finningley not so good from the M18 to Sheffield. Driven that route a lot and there's always plenty of hold ups/congestion. Lets be honest Robin Hood needed services otherwise it was stagnating. The services their likely to get are similar to services offered through LBIA with the odd exception and they would have to compete with Jet 2, Ryanair and Monarch on those routes.

I'm not saying your wrong in your assessment as clearly more needs to be done to address better link roads to LBIA but I wonder if Flybe thought by offering a similar route base from LBIA this would impact on passenger numbers.....new airport new opportunities. We have also had Milan which is a possible offering and struggled albeit with a much larger aircraft so not too sure how well that route would do.

I will as a result of this news definately send an email to the airport and the local MP calling for changes as without this we too could stagnate!!