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Train links axe looms

PLANS to axe an important train service between Doncaster and Sheffield could put the brakes on economic revival, fear the borough's transport and business leaders.

Bosses at Arriva CrossCountry Trains are considering diverting their express route from the Midlands to the North-east via Leeds instead of Doncaster.

But fierce opposition will come from passenger bodies and Doncaster business leaders who fear the economy and tourism would both suffer if the fast train between Doncaster and Sheffield is lost.

The trains, formerly operated by Virgin, provide a quicker option between Doncaster and Sheffield because they are non-stop and also provide higher standards of comfort.

The Integrated Transport Auth-ority for the region is being urged to make clear it will object to the proposal to divert the service between Reading and Newcastle to go via Sheffield, Leeds and York, rather than Sheffield Doncaster and York as at present.

David Young, a South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive director, said today: "This is potentially very bad news for South Yorkshire for a number of reasons."

"It would mean Doncaster losing direct train links to Derby, Birmingham and stops to Reading, and Doncaster could have a significantly reduced service to York and stations north, which would undermine economic growth.

He added: "The loss of the service between Sheffield and Doncaster would create crowding on other services, increase journey times by up to 20 minutes and reduce the quality of the journey.

"This is especially true for users of local stations as more passengers will be forced onto local services at both Sheffield and Doncaster.

"This would undermine access from Sheffield to Robin Hood Airport and would make access to more frequent services to London via the East Coast mainline less attractive."

It is feared many rail users between Doncaster and Sheffield would be forced on to slower, less attractive and at times overcrowded train services which could lead to more people using cars and adding to congestion on the M1 and M18.

Doncaster business leaders have also condemned the proposal, suggesting rail links to the town need to be increased, not reduced.

Daniel Fell, head of policy at Doncaster Chamber, said: "Doncaster Chamber is against any reduction in services to this important cross country route. Doncaster's transport links are one of the town's key assets and any reduction in the town's connectivity, especially to key cities such as Sheffield, York, Derby and Birmingham would be a blow for the local economy. Importantly, a reduction in services between Sheffield and Doncaster could make access to Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield via public transport harder.

A spokesman for Arriva CrossCountry said: "At the moment we are only looking at some train services and it is very much at the investigation and consultation stage.

"We are committed to consulting with all rail users and certainly nothing is going to happen yet. No decision will be taken without full consultation and that process hasn't actually started yet."

Source
 
[textarea]Business group slam Robin Hood Airport road delay

Business leaders have hit out at the complicated planning system they believe is bogging down plans for a major new road between Robin Hood Airport and the M18. The town’s Chamber of Commerce says the planning system needs overhauling to ensure the route goes ahead as soon as possible.

They say completion of the Finningley and Rossington Regeneration Route Scheme (FARRRS) is key to delivering £1 billion of investment and 14,000 jobs, as well as the success of the airport. The Chamber believe speedy construction of the road would make the airport significantly more attractive to airlines and directly result in more services, and reignite interest in economic development around Doncaster, including the airport’s business park.

Chamber chief executive Stephen Shore said: ‘In all, FARRRS could help contribute to the delivery of £1 billion of investment and over 14,000 jobs by 2030 to the airport region. Yet the planning process could lay down sufficient obstacles to heavily delay or even halt the scheme.’

Source[/textarea]
 
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A poster on 'another forum said:
what made me fume was the mention of all the infrastructure thats going to be needed at their airport expansion...train and road links..sound familiar..if LBA get these links and work starts in the near future,why does Doncaster have to wait and wait and wait...get in the queue LBA!!!!!!.

LBA has waited more years than I care to remember to get decent transport links and they are still a long way off yet. LBA has proved itself worthy of needing improved transport links whereas many would argue DSA has still yet to prove itself.
 
If you remember Finnairweb it was just the same sort of nonsense, though the real potential of the airport is now starting to hit home.

I dont buy the idea that the link road will make too much difference to the viability of airline services, like the crap about people not being aware of its existance. Just a landfill news story.

The only interest Peel have in the link road is the fact that it will bump up airports estate value.... Schemes like this should have such low priority when Castle Street in Hull and connections to LBA need sorting out.
 
I couldn't agree more.

LBA has pretty awful road links but has still made a success of itself despite that, probably because whilst in a relatively poor location for an airport being on a hill, it is very well located close to the main cities it serves, unlike Doncaster Sheffield which is almost as far from Sheffield as Manchester is. This is yet another 'excuse'/smokescreen to try and explain away that their huge investment is backfiring. They have only themselves to blame as they were told by people within the industry at the Public Enquiry that Finningley was not required and would struggle. They can build all the roads they like but it won't turn Doncaster Sheffield into a success any time soon. The Ryanair announcement at LBA is only adding to their woes, particularly since they won't have Ryanair at all this winter apparently? Given the new base at LBA one wonders if Ryanair will actually go back to DSA next summer or just operate out of LBA?

As posted by Aviador, LBA is a 50 year old civil airport with rubbish road links. DSA is what - 3 years old?? I really think it is DSA that should join the queue.
 
750 homes to help fund M18 airport link road

HOUSING and business park plans which could help fund a link road to Robin Hood Airport have been given the go-ahead.

Doncaster Council planning committee voted to allow Peel Investments to go ahead with proposals for a 750 home housing estate, and to ditch restrictions on a business park which limit it to aviation-related uses.

Objections had been lodged to the housing plans from the Campaign to Protect Rural England, because of concerns it would set a precedent in allowing building in countryside policy areas.

But councillors backed a call for the proposal to be treated as a special case because of its implication for the regeneration of the area during difficult economic times.

Andy Gutherson, the borough's assistant director of development and planning, told the committee the council was having to look at alternative ways to obtain funding for the road.

It is viewed by Doncaster Council and South Yorkshire business leaders
as a key development in the county.

He said: "The Government indicated FARRRS - the Finningley and Rossington Regeneration Route Scheme - will not be seen as a priority in its current spending review.

"It is incumbent on the council to look at ways to access funding to enable it to be developed if is seen as a priority."

Under the plans, the housing development could not be fully developed until the road was completed, and the developer would pay towards the road's cost.

Coun Yvonne Woodcock said: "I'm not thinking about five years into the future - I'm thinking about 20, 30 or 40 years in the future.

"I'm thinking about the next generation and the next generation after that.

"We struggle to get people into work here, and that may still be the case if we don't go for this."

Peel Investments director Peter Nears told the committee some businesses had decided against moving to the site because of the restrictions on planning permission which limited its use to aviation related businesses.

He said other airports including Manchester, Humberside and Leeds Bradford did not have the same restrictions.

The restriction put banks off lending cash to develop the site because it made it less likely that they would be able to let units if they repossessed them, he said.

Robin Hood Airport director Mike Morton described the airport as one of South Yorkshire's greatest assets.

He said: "I've seen from business leaders that there is a real appetite to be around the airport.

"The fact that we're looking at public sector cuts means we've got to generate more business in the region.

http://www.thestar.co.uk/headlines/750- ... 6687606.jp
 
A cost estimate into FARRRS was made a couple of years ago. Estimates were over £100 million then. I just cannot see Peel/VAS spending more on a link road than it cost them to build the airport! They will build the houses and business units then watch the traffic build up on the local roads and return to the government for funding. Its just such a large project to believe that all of the money to build the road would come out of Peels pockets!
 
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I don't think the tax payer should fund a development such as this unless the benefits can clearly be seen to benefit many people. Had DSA been a busy international airport that desperately needed a new road link then yes I would agree the money needed to be spent on improving road links. Unfortunately the airport isn't yet in a position where you could justify spending so much public money. It has to be said though, if the money can be found privately then bring it on.
 
The firm will also have to pay out £50,000 towards the preparation of a transport study, a further £50,000 towards the cost of the "Take off at the Airport" marketing programme, which aims to encourage new businesses to come to Doncaster, and an unspecified "programme of financial contributions" towards the construction of the FARRRS link road

Read more; http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Cou ... 6688698.jp

Who is going to meet the 'programme of financial contributions'? Be assured Aviador, if they do build this development it will not be them stumping up the full amount.

They may be able to build it for a bit cheaper than the government could, but its still a substantial amount of money, as i say more than the cost of the airport itself, it would have to be guranteed to succeed if it went ahead.

I just hope theres a clause that they have to commence building work on the link road BEFORE any housing foundations have been layed.
 
I have thought for a while that the only way this road could come into fruition is in a haphazard piecemeal fashion. We had a proposal, last year for a business venture which would build the motorway connection at J3 and the first bit of the main road.

It reminds me of the A555 over at manchester airport which is a superb grade seperated junction over a roundabout. Once destined to be part of a full motorway linking the M56 to east of manchester, but they didn't build the rest of it.
Every so often there is a proposal to link it up to the stub of motorway at manchester airport. And to the half completed junction ar M60 J25. All the land is still reserved after 30 years, but the money and will to do it, keeps running out.

IT is exactly the same problem as the FARRS road in my mind, but the Manchester is 10x more likely to get funding because no matter what we think, Manchester airport will always be much bigger and more important.
 
I don't know if you are all keeping up with the ongoing political news about the plans for the High Speed 2 rail line.

As a sheffield resident and an active poster on a sheffield metro area forum..

..I have been putting two and two together for months and trying to calm down the overactive young posters who think that HS2 will arrive at sheffield station or the disused Victoria station on the wicker arches. The hilly topography of sheffield means that, in my humble opinion, the line is much more likely to be laid out to the east of the city, possibly well out of the city boundaries.

Now the government documents are becoming available and it seems I was right about this. The documents (some referenced in the sheffield metro forum, mention a "south yorkshire station".

The problem is, that this new line will have to be straighter than any traditional rail line so that the trains can achieve required high speeds. The kinds of massive tunneling which would be required to get the line to the middle of hilly sheffield would push the costs up to unfeasable levels, and so I expect that the station could be in rotherham, or doncaster where the terrain is much flatter.

It seems to me that if the "south yorkshire HS2" station is in doncaster area or between doncaster and sheffield, then part of the project will be to establish a transfer rail service to connect to sheffield. Also maybe rotherham, barnsley and doncaster. If this were a new rail service this could be the answer that the Airport needs to connect it directly to our local towns and cities.


How's that for an exciting possiblility ?
 
Pardon my ignorance, but what link has HS2 got with DSA? Unless of course they plan to build a 'parkway' station at or near to the airport, which would kind of miss the point of it in the first place.
 
Have you actually read my post ?
What I am saying is that the HS2 line and south yorkshire station might be located close to DSA. This would help the airport by providing transport infrastructure to and from the airport as well as connect the airport to the city of sheffield, because there would almost certainly be a direct train connection between sheffield and the HS2 south yorkshire station.
 
The Manchester One would be part of HS2 as the line folks nr Birmingham to give a Manchester branch and a Leeds branch
I believe HS1 is the line running up to the Channel Tunnel on the eurostar sevice
 
muddycoffee said:
Have you actually read my post ?
What I am saying is that the HS2 line and south yorkshire station might be located close to DSA. This would help the airport by providing transport infrastructure to and from the airport as well as connect the airport to the city of sheffield, because there would almost certainly be a direct train connection between sheffield and the HS2 south yorkshire station.


Yes I did and you did not make it clear that the station may be located near to the airport.

Do not be fooled to think that large amounts will be spent linking the airport to any proposed HS2, unless the station is on or very close to the airport like I say, for reasons I have outlined to you in the past. Manchester airports' circumstances are completely different.
 
Hi

Can I just say I thought the whole idea of this new high speed rail link is ment to be as it says. "High speed City to City linking". So not stopping in between city pairs especially in the middle of no where or small villages thus making journeys slower just for an airport that only has 10 to 15 flights a day.
 
lbaspotter said:
Hi

Can I just say I thought the whole idea of this new high speed rail link is ment to be as it says. "High speed City to City linking". So not stopping in between city pairs especially in the middle of no where or small villages thus making journeys slower just for an airport that only has 10 to 15 flights a day.

Actually you're wrong about this because the latest documentation from the government suggests that there will be just one stop in "the south yorkshire" area. This could be in the outskirts of sheffield or alternatively somewhere in the gap between doncaster, rotherham and sheffield.

My own insight into the transport infrastructure and especially the local railway landscape tells me that the closer the line gets to the centre of sheffield, the more expensive it will be to construct. Whereas, if it was built in the much flatter terrain near the A1, it would be far cheaper.

So to summarise, if the government decides to build the line as cheaply as possible it will push it out toward the flatter rural land, and connect to the local cities with slower local shuttle trains.
 
Actually you're wrong about this because the latest documentation from the government suggests that there will be just one stop in "the south yorkshire" area. This could be in the outskirts of sheffield or alternatively somewhere in the gap between doncaster, rotherham and sheffield.

Part of the plan has been mention of a spur line into Nottingham city centre, so I dont see why the same would not happen with Sheffield usind current infrastructure.

Im still skeptical of this anyway, its not even planned to be up and running until 2033 and we know anything could happen between now and then.
 
Possible good news from the budget for the airport.

As the Airport is part of the "sheffield region" just declared an enterprise zone.
Rate relief will mean that new businesses will want to move here and relaxation of planning laws could make extensions to the business park come much sooner.
Their is even talk about the relief road.

http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk...e_zone_will_aid_investment_and_jobs_1_3212894
 

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