Leeds Bradford Airport plan will not deliver the anticipated passenger numbers without direct rail link - YEP letters

It didn’t come as a surprise when Leeds City Council voted to allow the expansion of Leeds/Bradford airport.

This is the same council that wants to ban traffic in the city centre to cut pollution yet they themselves are responsible for increasing the air pollution by 60 per cent or more by continuing to install speeds bumps, mickey-mouse roundabouts, traffic lights etc...when other major cities are removing theirs.

The council could also have reduced traffic in many areas if they had insisted on new train stations being part of any house building projects adjacent to a railway line.

The saddest thing is that the airport expansion will not deliver the passenger numbers anticipated.

The only way it could be successful is if there is some sort of direct rail link into the new terminal, eg a tram-train service from Leeds with a light-rail link that cuts off from the Harrogate line somewhere north of Horsforth.

The present planned station on the Harrogate line east of the airport will be a white elephant. Many air travellers will still continue to pass through Leeds on trains that go directly into the airport in Manchester.

My only hope is that the cost for building this pointless station on the Harrogate line is met by the owners of the airport and not by the taxpayer.