I think surface access is extremely relevant to this forum.
This week I had to fly to Linz in Austria which basically means flying LH and connecting in Frankfurt. I live in the North East of England so I am faced with a train journey to an airport (LHR, LCY, BHX, EDI or MAN).
I ended up flying out of LCY and back in to EDI. Of course MAN is the closest option for me but the flight timings and the length of train journey did not work for me. A shame really but the Trans Pennine trains to MAN from the North East take too long and do not offer the same level of comfort/service that the East Coast mainline does.