Originally Posted by
Manchester Kurt
Rubbish analogy, the railway is regulated and state owned.
The DfT mandate a minimum service, own the tracks and own the trains.
The WCML makes a profit.
Leeds airport was sold by the local authority to a private enterprise, a private enterprise that has shareholders that expect a return on their investment and not to be a charity interested in developing the West Yorkshire economy.
You've taken the west coast rail analogy far too literally and deep. Forget the train analogy and concentrate on the butcher analogy.
You talk about DfT mandating a minimum service but so do the Yorkshire public. Shareholders may well be disappointed if they expect a return on their investment because there's been no where near the amount of investment that was declared to be spent when the airport was sold. Big money was required to be spent not just a tarting up of the historic terminal but on the whole LBA infrastructure package.
Perhaps the owners have realised that there is not much more can be done on the present Yeadon site that would get value for money? It's a serious question, not just concerning road and rail links to Yeadon but also spending on taxiways and apron space etc Why spend millions of pounds on a capped airfield just to get 2 or 3 more million passengers?
There is no logic in throwing good money after bad. Church fenton would not be a capped airfield in terms of space.