YP Letters: A failure of imagination on Leeds airport link

IN reading Tom Richmond’s column (The Yorkshire Post, December 10) about the parkway station for Leeds Bradford Airport, I fully agree with him.

I believe also Leeds City Council (LCC) has got it wrong. What do airport travellers want? Yes, most of us know we require a fast comfortable ride to get us there in plenty of time for check in and security, and will opt to go by taxi or ask a friend for a lift, which is much preferable to a cold draughty rail platform and having to manhandle luggage to the awaiting feeder bus.

I have visited many major towns and cities in Europe and experienced excellent tram and train services direct from the airport. In the UK, I believe Newcastle’s airport to be a good example of a light rail/tram connection which runs direct from Newcastle’ s Central Station to the airport. The issue of the steep gradient from Horsforth should not be a problem with modern-day rolling stock.

So, LCC, get your act together now, stop wasting millions on ill-thought-out park and ride schemes, move forward and show the people of Yorkshire what you can do.

From: John Collins, Ilkley.

I AM glad Tom Richmond commented on the latest proposals for the transport links to LBA.

“Pathetic” is too weak a word but the proposal to connect a half-baked railway to the “wrong” side of the airport but which falls short and has to transfer passengers to a bus is so poor it beggars belief.

The fact is that the “leaders” of Leeds City Council have no imagination, no business sense and no feel at all for the real requirements of the Leeds City Region which includes Bradford and the surrounding area.

I am aware of your reservations about LBA but, if there has to be a transport link (and there must be one), it has to be from within the airport terminal, it has to be rail and it has to link to the Guiseley area, offering direct access to Leeds and Bradford in relatively short time. If a true rail link is not feasible, then a tram or light rail connection is still long overdue.

Compared to all the money spent on Crossrail, the essential developments around Leeds are “chicken feed”. Unfortunately, the Leeds city councillors are unfit for purpose and unable to cope with major proposals of a regional nature. They are incapable of running a chip shop.

Their blocking of a mayor is exactly the same response to any sense of getting things done.

From: John Wakeman, Doncaster.

I TOTALLY agree with Tom Richmond’s comments about Leeds Bradford Airport.

I came back from Dublin last Thursday. After a coach back towards the terminal, we then had to queue outside (not raining for a change but cold) to make our way upstairs through a narrow spiral staircase.

We then had to line up for passport control, which I agree with, but the whole experience was depressing.

When I checked in the day before, the lack of decent food facilities, unless you like bars, was equally poor.

Come on, Leeds if you really want to become a destination airport, get the simple things sorted out.

The only shining light for me was Lee at the meet and greet car park.

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

RECENTLY, Leeds Council Leader, Judith Blake attended a ‘State of the North 2016’ event in Leeds (The Yorkshire Post, December 10). In connection with HS2 and HS3, she demanded “we want one then the other to link the whole system together” – fighting talk, and it makes sense.

Coming, as it did, hard on the heels of the council’s recent woefully inadequate ‘Masterplan’ for the city’s ailing transport infrastructure, I fancy it had quite a few of us scratching our heads.

As things stand, potential HS2 passengers could complete their journey by gliding smoothly, quietly and cleanly across Manchester, on a 21st century tram. Their Leeds counterparts would judder across the city in a raucous, stinking diesel bus.

Councillor Blake: We are 16 years into the 21st century. Why are you prepared to let a major European city’s public transport moulder in the middle of the 20th century? And why are six of the city’s eight MPs prepared to let it happen?

From: Robert Foster, Winterburn Grange, nr Skipton.

THE proposed station at Bramhope to serve Leeds Bradford Airport is admirable in its combination of simplicity and minimum cost.

Few secondary airports, as it has to be accepted LBA is, can justify a dedicated direct rail connection – either in terms of infrastructure or additional trains to operate the service – and so a station a mile from the terminal and served by trains running on the Leeds-Harrogate-York line is a pragmatic and cost-effective solution. It might even hasten a long overdue decision to electrify that line.

Critics of the proposal cite European airports, yet only a limited number have direct rail access without some form of intermediate bus or internal rail connection. That applies for example at both Paris airports, as it does at Gatwick North terminal.

Attenborough TV triumph

From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York.

I HAVE just finished watching the last of Sir David Attenborough’s six editions of Planet Earth II. I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of all six programmes. At 90 years of age, Sir David is, quite simply, the best.

He must have visited nearly every corner of our planet and, as a commentator, he is second to none. Unlike most, he knows when to talk and when not to talk. The various camera and technical crews he gathers are brilliant in so many ways. They are brave, patient, knowledgeable, understanding, passionate and so very, very skilful.