The place should be shut. A tiny insignificant airport. LPL and MAN are just down the road, so why bother with maintaining such a place? Operated in there myself. It felt like the 60's re-incarnated. Formica palace with lamentable facilities.
their is a place for all airports in the NW large or small . the economy wont be stagnent for ever, and then the airports will take off no pun intended
Well now that , the shoody mess, that has just been given the west coast main line,over virgin( ot that im abig fan of them either, but they do seem to know what their doing in running the train service) considering that shambolic old rustbuckets they First use, anyone think that in maybe a year or so time, a london route might become feasible again, maybe done on an atr, such as the DUB route by aer lingus(aer arran) unbeleivable they been given that franchise , when they havent sorted the ones out they have already. Already they're saying, they are going to squeeze even more seats into these trains per carriage!!!! now could be the time for air to fight back.
BLK can kiss any hopes of a LON link goodbye me thinks! With FirstGroup taking over the WCML from Virgin Trains, they want to introduce a Blackpool>Euston link in 2013.
Yes, if and when they get the trains. if you look at their other franchises, most of them are waiting for new rolling stock, especially the East coast line, can see them bailing out of it in a few years time as, they will have over bid, what they can afford. I hope they do introduce a direct route, but i hope at the same time they wont run it with one of their old intercity 125's they still have trundling around...
On other note reading that eazy havent put GIb up for sale yet from lpl, would make a good niche route for jet2 from MAN/BLK as they have holiday arm to support it too, (and yes i have mentioned this on GIb thread too!), Just holding out for another new route....
don't shout me down, i know i am on an aviation forum, but isn't it more environmentally friendly for people to be traveling by train between domestic UK points in the long run? Especially since it is unlikely that BLK-London would ever be for connecting purposes unless LHR had 4 runways!
Nakata, "sort of", is the answer. But based on my experience of First Group rail franchises, I'm not looking forward to getting to train from Manchester to Euston when they take over. It'll be cramped, crowded and far less comfortable. I think I'll be electing to fly MAN>LON a bit more often after December!
Yes i think BA will be rubbing their hands with Glee, one thing virgin did do, was get people to abandon flying to London from up here, and take the train, whether you like Virgin/Branson or not, they did get the product mostly right in the end, which just shows by the number of people using the service, which is double the east coast line, and that side of the country on other hand i would say, gets better served by air, than what we do now. enviromentally the train would probably more than likely be better , but as has been said it depends on what kind of service First gives, and typically its not always very good, having travelled on First transpennine from Blackpool, you can get a very nice train, onanother occasion, its some clapped out thing, they have already said their going to cram more seats into the what will be ex-virgin trains, all seems very bizzare, but that sums this country up, you build something up to be a sucess, then thats not good enough , we, as in the country(or gov,t) have to go and bugger it all up!!!
I used to work on the railways and there seems to be a lot of misconceptions here...
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Yes i think BA will be rubbing their hands with Glee, one thing virgin did do, was get people to abandon flying to London from up here, and take the train, whether you like Virgin/Branson or not, they did get the product mostly right in the end, which just shows by the number of people using the service, which is double the
The railways in the UK are nothing like airlines, the Government has a massive say in how they operate. The Government also decides virtually everything that is important; the actual fleet, the levels of 'flexible' fares, the frequencies e.t.c. All very convenient, since the Gov. can blame the private companies when there are complaints.
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But based on my experience of First Group rail franchises, I'm not looking forward to getting to train from Manchester to Euston when they take over. It'll be cramped, crowded and far less comfortable. I think I'll be electing to fly MAN>LON a bit more often after December!
I doubt it. The actual trains, the frequencies, the staff e.t.c all stays the same. Basically, it's a pointless re-branding exercise. The trains are leased, the lease simply transfers to First.
Most of the improvements to rail between Manchester - London have not been paid for by Virgin, but by the Great British taxpayer. I fact, I am little bit sick of this love for Virgin that everyone seems to have, must be their PR...
I have no love for First either, but when it comes to catering they've proposed introducing a "Travelling Chef" service onboard with meals available to standard class and first class. That's probably an improvement over what Virgin offer.
In fact, since a direct Blackpool - London service is now officially on the cards, there's even less chance of a London air link!
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its some clapped out thing, they have already said their going to cram more seats into the what will be ex-virgin trains,
All Transpennine Express trains are new(ish). Northern Rail have older trains. That is entirely down to the Government, they have complete control over rolling stock allocation.
I also think that if there was an air link from Blackpool to London, the airlink would be prefered to a rail link.
Depends on where you land. The old Ryanair link to Stansted still meant a fairly expensive 50-55 minutes train ride for those heading into Central London (Liverpool Street station). That's without even considering check-in, security and all the associated hassles of air travel.
A direct train from Blackpool to (Central) London would take about 2h40m, based upon the current timings of Preston - London. The majority of passengers flying Manchester - Heathrow/Gatwick are either connecting onwards or heading to final destination which is closer to Heathrow/Gatwick than Euston station in Central Lonon.
The rest I suppose would come down to cost..watching the news this morning, rail travel is to rise above inflation again..I think inflation + 3% was being bandied, although that could drop a little I suppose. Trains are not cheap as it is..Not been to London on a train for a while, so not sure about the fare.
Watching the news tonight, it seems the rail journey proposed from Dec 2013 for Blackpool>Euston will be a diesel train with a total journey time of 3 1/2 hrs. It'll be once daily too, meaning fares are bound to be high. Then in 2016 it is *proposed* to move to 5xdaily electric service. But I suggest 2016 is when FirstGroup will give up the contract. (mild speculation, of course).
