Infrastructure, Construction & Developments

[Aviador]

Airport plan at Meadowhall

ROBIN Hood Airport is taking its masterplan consultation roadshow to Meadowhall today and tomorrow.

Airport staff will be at the shopping centre to give information on future expansion plans as part of the masterplan's public consultation, which is open for comment until March 16.

Key elements of the draft masterplan proposals include terminal expansion and airfield development, new cargo facilities, and improved public transport access and facilities.

The plan is also proposing a further phase of the airport business park, more housing development and the completion of a link road from the M18.

Source

 

[Aviador]

The link road come at a cost of around £150m which seems on the steep side for an airport that isn't even on it's feet yet.

 

[rmac]

This amount does appear to be steep. A new 9mile section of A1 in east Scotland cost about 45million, including a complicated high bridge, just a few years ago. There appear to be many other projects in Yorkshire that have a high priority,new stations for example. What about the proposed new rail or tram link from the Horsforth rail line into Leeds airport. From what I constantly read everyone highlights LBA·s poor public transport access and I would have thought that even this project would take precedence over a road link to an airport that appears to be going backwards, i.e DSA. On the other hand LBA looks to have a better future and a decent rail link would be a tremendous asset. Will it happen?

 

[pug]

A lot of influencial people live near to DSA, this is why they are pushing it through. Completely wrong in my opinion. I think give Rossington its link road, if Peel want the rest they can pay for it..

A poster on the DSA forum, and who i believe works at the airport, claims its days are numbered and that everyone connected to it knows that.. I believe him in a way, new CATIII ILS and all the 'fans' are claiming now that they will get the traffic.... Hmmm, perhaps on occasional bad wx diversions.

 

[White Heather]

Funny that the consultation plan goes to Meadowhall, which is some 20 miles from the airport and attracts people from all over Yorkshire who will not really care much about any impact on local people if the airport expands. That is like LBA taking its roadshow to York!

I still think that large scale expansion won't happen here for all the reasons we have previously discussed. The new road, if it happens, will however make the airport site a more viable option when Peel decide to close it down and sell for redevelopment. I still believe that the fact they are planning a golf course and housing estate next to the airport shows which direction DSA will go in the longer term. The reported losses were £1m per week last summer, so they must be increasing even more now.

Surely the regional planners are not going to be duped into paying all this for the link road. The much needed park and ride on the Horsforth - Leeds line has been put on the reserve list and more people would use that each year than DSA! Prorities all wrong I fear.

 

[Aviador]

Surely the regional planners are not going to be duped into paying all this for the link road. The much needed park and ride on the Horsforth - Leeds line has been put on the reserve list and more people would use that each year than DSA! Prorities all wrong I fear.

I'm not suggesting for a minute that this will or has happened but both councils and governments do tend to have a history of back handers. In a recent newspaper article in the Bradford T&A. The article reported that money was being diverted away from new station schemes in the Bradford district towards the road plans for Doncaster airport. This is ridiculous because like you say, more people would use a new Horsforth station than will use Doncaster airport in a year. To go ahead with this ridiculous pie in the sky plan will make Doncaster airport the biggest white elephant Yorkshire has ever seen, if this hasn't already been the case.

 

[pug]

To go ahead with this ridiculous pie in the sky plan will make Doncaster airport the biggest white elephant Yorkshire has ever seen, if this hasn't already been the case.

Id watch what your saying Aviador, youl have the voice of infinate knowledge coming from Pprune to tell you that you're a lowly spotter and know nothing.

By many accounts employees are getting annoyed and increasingly pessimistic at the thought of yet more redundancies, credit crunch concidered they realy are going all out to cut costs. Not realy what we should be seeing from a company who are supposidly committed to DSA yet will get rid of the backbone of the airports operations.

Im getting tired of hearing how the new CatIII ILS will be bringing in airlines, to my knowledge DSA has a good diversion record before the new system became operational...

Of course what do i know, i am just a 'spotter' though how you can judge someones credentials on an anonymous forum is beyond me.

 

[Aviador]

I think the said poster you mention also visits the SSC Sheffield pages. He rants on about the wonderful CAT III on there too. Like you say though, nobody can tell just exactly what credentials people who frequent these forum have. One thing we can rely on though is numbers and Doncaster's numbers just don't add up.

I did say however that alternative opinions are welcomed on these forums. We're still waiting....

 

[pug]

I did say however that alternative opinions are welcomed on these forums. We're still waiting....

I would gladly welcome them too, though they seem to be more nit-picking at posts rather than putting forward their own opinions... I think that could only ammount to a weak argument dont you?

Ive already said that if DSA could become a big hub airport i would be among them happy that Yorkshire could boast a world class facility. Whether that is what Peel blindly foresaw or not it is not going to happen while MAN EMA LBA are around.

 

[Aviador]

The scenario that DSA are currently in is exactly what I predicted on 'the other forum' years back. I was shot down for being critical of the then proposals to make the airport into a 'world class airport' as it was put then. I explained the reasons why I came to the conclusion that the airport was likely to fail. Those reasons were as follows.

I explained that there were already four well established airports in the region circling DSA. Although non of those airport were particularly large, it was always going to be an up hill struggle to make a new airport work without diluting traffic to those airports.

Secondly, I pointed out that DSA was 15 miles away from the main conurbations of Sheffield and that it was also on the wrong side of Sheffield to make it attractive to the people of Leeds and Bradford which would be necessary to make this so called new 'world class airport' work.

One of the replies I got to the point I made about DSA's distance away from the city of Sheffield was that Manchester was around the same distance away from it's airport and so DSA should manage to grow to an equal size in time. The difference with Manchester is that it has been in it's location for many years and has become established without any obstacles such as competition from neighbouring airports. We are now seeing competition slowly erode Manchester traffic. Manchester airport is starting to show the signs of a gradual reduction in it's passenger numbers. This is largely because of people wanting to fly from their local airports such as Liverpool, Leeds, East Midlands and Humberside to name a few.

 

[pug]

I agree with you though the bit about MAN reducing in throughput could be down to their rather dismissive view of low-cost airlines in the past, they have only cottoned on in the last few years, the long-haulers will still favour MAN over everywhere else and a hub and spoke service is where future growth should come from.

Said poster on Pprune is like most others on the DSA forum; dismissive of views deemed as pessimistic, constantly wearing rose tinted specs. Their posts become rude and intollerant without any thought or depth being added to the argument, much the same as Peels attitude when pushing for the green light fopr this scheme. In fact the biggest reason i was and am against the development is because of Peel...

The advent of DSA has meant saturation of the Yorks/Humberside and maybe even North Notts and Lincs pax to a point where, particularly in the current economic decline, there could be terminal damage.

What supporters seemed to miss is that despite an interest from airlines from the start of the planning to the present day, there are far better established airports with operators whose credentials in airport operations far outweigh their competitor Peels.... Had the place opened in 97-99 i think it would be a completely different story, between then and 05 other airports realised they must scrap the traditional revenue streems to keep up with the emerging low-cost boom!

 

[White Heather]

I drove from central Sheffield yesterday, via Sheffield Parkway, M1, and M18 on the way to Scunthorpe. At Juction 4 of the M18 is a sign saying to use that exit for Robin Hood and the mileage covered from leaving Sheffield city centre was 25, and there was still some way to go to get to DSA.

MAN is just as close although clearly the roads are none too clever over those Pennines.

 

[Pat]

The local radio station on sunday was saying DSA had been given planning permission for the railstation to be built and they were hoping for more long haul flights to be coming to the airport
they didnt say which line it would be on - but if i remember correctly the lincoln to doncaster line runs at the back of the airport

 

[pug]

I think it is the Doncaster to Lincoln line but is some distance from the terminal and is unlikely to attract a viable number of pax as there are not many services through there.

I need not mention long-haul.

 

[Aviador]

Oh dear not more long-haul from that super duper long runway.
You would have thought that they'd have got over it by now. Will someone tell them....

 

[pug]

If they keep on saying about 'long-haul' it makes you wonder what little realy is going on. The best i can see on that front is if they manage to get some charter stuff to Orlando, Mexico and Carribean. All well and good but i remember the reason the flights were pulled was due to the First Choice/Thomson merger and they chose the better base which was EMA.

 

[rmac]

Rail halt.
The cost of a simple rail station is not cheap so will it be financially viable? Surely no more public money should be wasted on this airport which should never have been given the go ahead. Public money should be used to support airports and transport projects that will be used.

 

[pug]

I would assume it will be funded by Peel as i believe it is on their estate, not that i would like to walk it with bags to the terminal as if i remember correctly it is still some distance from the building. I cannot see people seeing the convenience of using it over the transport already available, i mean, who is going to benefit? It would mean a change of train in Donny for anyone who is not coming from Lincoln would it not? I also remain unconvinced that a rail link would be viable for any airport with such linited movements per day, i wouldnt have thought it would be worth the time of a train stopping. Will probably end up as the same fate of MME's effort where rail services boycott it altogether.

 

[muddycoffee]

I have to agree with pug here. I can't see how a rail station would be viable on any airport which is not mature with far higher amount of passengers.
I've been through this subject before in other places and it seems that a large proportion of passengers would never use rail in UK. Especially families as getting all the luggage and children on and off trains would be a nightmare. I personally like to travel light with just hand luggage and would prefer to use trains to transfer to and from an airport, but so many people take far too much with them and it makes things far too complicated.
I think the bigger demand would be for incoming visitors to the airport, however I don't imagine this class of travellers is significant today.

 

[Aviador]

Airport Masterplan Consultation Results Reveal Overwhelming Public Support for Continued Expansion

Following the launch of its draft Masterplan and subsequent public consultation, Doncaster Sheffield Airport has revealed early results of the consultation which show overwhelming public support for the development plans and desire to see an East Coast Mainline station at the airport site delivered.

Over 90% of respondents expressed strong support for the objectives set out in the Masterplan including rail connectivity, with the airport receiving over 1,600 responses to the open consultation. Other standout highlights were 97% support for expansion to terminal building services to maintain the high standard of customer service and 96% support for proposals to deliver new employment developments to create up to 13,000 new jobs at the airport.

The Masterplan details the future development of the current site of the Airport and the projected growth extending out over the next 20 years, forecasting 4.7 million passengers and 70,000 tonnes per year. The Masterplan when fully realised will deliver £3.7bn to the local economy by 2037 including £900m construction investment and £159m to the region’s tourism economy.

At the launch of the Masterplan, the airport also published its Vision Plan to realise the airport and its site full potential as the major international gateway for the East side of the UK. With the delivery of an East Coast Mainline connected station at the site as envisaged in the Vision Plan, the passenger number growth would be more than doubled to 11.8 million by 2050, with a station becoming operational as early as 2024 – just 6 years’ time.

The consultation took place over an ten-week period between March and May, with over 1,600 responses received from the public, stakeholders and private and public sector organisation taking part. A total of 11 public consultation events were held, including exhibitions at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Sheffield Hallam University and several venues around South Yorkshire and North Nottinghamshire. The airport also visited a number of local schools speaking to over 1,500 school children on the Masterplan and potential careers in aviation.

The feedback received during the public consultation will ultimately inform the final Airport masterplan that will be released at the end of 2018. The full interim consultation summary report can be viewed here: www.flydsa.co.uk/masterplan