Yes and you can add me to that! Total waste of money which could far better spent on almost any other transport project (be it rail, bus, bus pretending to be tram, or even just fixing some more potholes!).
Anyone know exactly what is going to make this new/upgraded station more connected and accessible?
Nothing, if anything it'll be even harder to get too seeing as they've but a great big hanger in front of it so I think the walking route will be even longer than it used to be. Previously it was around 1km (see a trip I did
here where I walked it and illustrated it) and I reckon now it'll be closer to 1.3km (unless you cut over a grassy field which will be fun with your rolly suitcase).
But the fundamental issues always remain. The railway, even at its closest approach to terminal building as the crow flies is still around 650m away, is just too far away from the terminal for any sensible station to be built that will be attractive. When they tried a shuttle minibus years and years ago it was a complete failure. Nobody used it. And this was in an era when the airport was, comparatively booming. Even when every (or nearly every train) was calling at the station, nobody used it. It has and always will be a waste of resources to have a station at the airport.
If you really wanted to give it a public transport link, take a fraction of the money and tender a local bus company to run a shuttle bus from Darlington town centre, with one intermediate call at the railway station to the airport and back again. It'll cart fresh air all day. But it would be a heck of a lot cheaper and more convenient that spending £20m on building a railway station that no-one will ever use and Northern won't call at because no-one will ever use it.
This is the correct answer. The airport is Houchen's totemic project and so whatever money has to be spent will be spent to keep it in people's minds as a "amazing thing he alone has achieved" even if the truth is somewhat different.
Surely there's something else in Teeside which would actually provide a benefit to someone with £20m spent on it? Like fixing the transporter bridge.
Yeah plenty. Even using it just to fix potholes would be better than than (the Transporter Bridge has got separate funding I believe otherwise I'd agree, spend it on that!).
Seems to me that the real question that raises is whether it is worth keeping the airport open at all. If it is to remain active then having no station on the existing passenger line going right past it does seem silly.
(It seemed especially silly to me last time, some years ago, that I flew into Teesside. the flight was delayed and arrived too late for the last bus. I ended up walking to Dinsdale station for a train which then took me back past the airport where I had landed, through the closed station there: most annoying).
I'm sorry but there is
no point to having the station serve the airport and it really doesn't go "right past" (see my linked report above). It doesn't work and has never worked. It's too far away, too inconvenient and just not worth spending a penny on. The edge case of someone who has landed and missed the last bus so had to walk to Dinsdale is just that an edge case. Particularly when most passengers, even when the station was open and had a good service, drove to it, got a lift to it or took a taxi.
Once the new platform at Darlington station is up and running, would there be a case for trains stopping at Teesside Airport? Or making Teesside Airport a request stop? i imagine that passengers using the airport station would be fairly few until there are more flights. And I've heard from a fairly reliable source some years back that the airport - even though it has a long runway - can't cope with much more flights until the terminal is upgraded.
Sadly there just isn't any point to it. Even when Teesside airport had more flights and more passengers the station was a ghost town and no attempt has ever managed to make it useful.
There is no grand conspiracy here, if the station had been successful it would have been left open with regular calls. But the calls were withdrawn and the station rundown because even in it and the airports heyday it wasn't being used!
BR indeed only agreed to build the station on the understanding that it would be paid for by and the maintenance paid for by the airport because BR knew that there was no viable business case for them to take on the liability themselves. That has not changed in the intervening decades.
Local people like that certain facilities exist, even though they have not the slightest intention of using them. Small regional airports fall into that category.
It's like the last bank in the village. People like the idea that there's a bank branch they can visit if they want to. They never will. But if the last bank is proposed for closure oh my the fuss that will be raised.
That would be really inconvenient for Teesside and the North East generally.
Seriously, I agree that Liverpool could benefit from a rail connection (as could Bristol for that matter if we widen this around the UK) but in terms of serving the North East Tees Side is really well located as it serves:
- Most of County Durham better than Newcastle
- Most of North Yorkshire better than Leeds Bradford
- Tees Side (of course)
I guess the concept is to make the airport more attractive and grow it over time - it does have potential - the Amsterdam flights with KLM are surprisingly busy
Though Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester are all well located to serve Teesside (no space
) and indeed that's where the majority of people fly from. Newcastle is only an hour away, Leeds Bradford similar and Manchester Airport is a bit further but not all that much further. All of them have a better range of flights and two of them better transport links (you can get trains directly to the terminal).
I wouldn't just shut Teesside Airport but I wouldn't spend a penny of taxpayer money on it when the needs of Teesside are well served by existing airports that do not require anything like the level of support Teesside does (if any at all!).
Having a station or not having a station changes nothing for Teesside Airport's viability and it's just Houchen's vanity that means we're lumbered wasting £20m on a white elephant.
