Quote: "As for the "Sheffield is the largest city without" - I remember using a similar argument for CVT, except it went along the lines of "we're the largest UK city with an airport with a runway capable of handling the B737 that doesn't currently do so.
So what? It was merely a pointer to the ideal that a city of our size would benefit from having a network of loco flights. Of course we would, of course SZD would benefit the city of Sheffield."
The difference between Coventry and Sheffield is that Coventry has one of the UK's largest airports (Elmdon) on it's door step (and used to have a rail/bus link to Heathrow via Watford).
"So might HS2, but you get that in Meadowhall Ryanair East Parkway, and we'll have to go to a "Brum" station."
Under the present lunatic proposals, all high speed rail journeys will have to go via a "Brum" station!
Complete waste of time! There is no point in having "high speed" rail if its stops are in the middle of nowhere!
Why? Because all the time-savings advantages accrued are lost by the need to faff around getting to the city or a proper transport hub (e.g. in this case, Sheffield Midland station) for the onward journey.
In addition to being dumped miles from the centre, travelling between
London and Sheffield on a high speed train will involve a dog leg via Birmingham. In reality there won't really be a time saving on the "high speed" route compared to the traditional direct route on the electrified (by then) East Midlands line.
It certainly wouldn't be worth paying the premium for: better off upgrading to first class on the direct route!
Quote: "So who does that leave to operate to/from a re-opened Sheffield City Airport and on what routes?"
Being a primarily business airport, a link to London (and other cities) would be necessary, but it appears not to have been viable. Maybe this is because LHR wasn't expanded when it should have been, so any potential commuter flights couldn't have taken advantage of carrying interlining connecting pax as well. There would not have been this extra traffic on SZD-LCY for example.
Quote: "Meanwhile ... just up country planning permission has been granted to build a Doncaster/Sheffield Airport rail station, why don't the "Sheffielders" petition for a PDQ train service from/to Finningley and the centre of Sheffield and then work on enticing the likes of KLM with their 80 seaters back to a Sheffield Airport (if in name only) that has a runway rather than half a runway and at least try to make one airport work rather than two that fail?
A Finningley station is a good idea - provided it's walking distance from the terminal! If a bus journey is involved, it might as well link DSA to Doncaster and Sheffield stations direct. traffic volumes at DSA may not warrant any of this.
Quote: "Or, might I ask, aren't trains as exciting as aeroplanes?"
They can be if they go centre to centre. If you have to go to an out-of- town location to catch the train, you may as well fly (it's quicker and probably cheaper).
Last edited by Fairdealfrank; 12th Jan 2013 at 11:43.