RAF Leuchars Airshow Chaos??
 

Plenty of news websites reporting travel chaos.

I missed it this year but would love to take the kids again next year....trains are usually overcrowded though. Was it as bad as reported for drivers...is it best to leave the car at home?

Whose fault was it?? Not the airshow surely, they've been doing it for years! :} Reports mention some events management consultancy....I feel sorry for any summer job students dumped in front of a column of irate drivers!

I haven’t been for a couple of years but I long ago stopped taking the car and travelled by train from Edinburgh.

A guy I work with was there at the week-end and tried to leave just before 5pm. It was after 9 when he finally got out of the traffic. Not a lot of fun with kids in the back :bored:

There seemed to be no obvious reason for the holdups. Just a large volume of traffic trying to get out of the parking area onto narrow roads.

His proposed solution for next year is to drive most of the way there and then cycle the last 5-6 miles.

B-E

I was at the show this year, and stayed in St Andrews. I left at about 17:30, and it took me about 30mins to get to my B&B, so I must have missed the worst of it.
In the past I have 'parked and cycled', I stayed in the Clayton Caravan Park, which is between Dairsie and Guardbridge, 56deg 21minN, 2deg55minW (aprox!). Looking on Google, they still seem to have touring caravan pitches if that is how you intend to do things.

Strange. Last year, getting off site in a minibus took no more than 20 mins. That said, it was no doubt much less busy last year due to the fog...

It only took me 20 minutes to get out of the traffic queues. Not bad at all. Don't believe all you read in the newspapers!

On the way in, I left the house at 6:00am (I live about 2hours away from the airshow) and drove straight in, there was about 5mins traffic.

On the way out, it took me 2 Hours just to get out of the base, in total it was 5 hours to get home for an hour and 50min drive.

My friend drove up in a motorbike and said he was driving past about 14miles of traffic.

I blame the roads for being too small (not designed to cope with the traffic) and Leuchars for making us drive around the whole base when we could have just drove straight out.

Thats about sums it up. Anyone familiar with the area will know that it cannot handle large volumes of traffic over a short period of time. There are similar scenes when the Open golf is held a few miles away at St Andrews.The Winco in charge of the display arrangements has refused to blame the event management company, traffic was up 23% on previous years and he admitted that RAF personel would not have been able to do any better, given the infrastructure.

I was at Leuchars.

Used the park an ride at the Five Roads Roundabout (we came in from the North). Got on the bus at around 1720 and got to park and ride at about 1750. After we got in the car we were straight out of the car park and it was plain sailing from there on out.

Would definatly recommend the park and ride. It's a fifth of the price of parking on base and the Police Officers that were guiding the traffic were giving right of way to the park and ride busses. :ok:

Did you see the state of the parking attendents (not sure what to call them)? None of them were guiding the traffic, it was pretty much a free for all while they stood around with their hands in their pockets.

Hate to disagree with tiki4 but i was there with Mrs , and 3 kids took us a 3.5 hrs to get out the gates !
Was told at one point that the main gates where clossed and it was only 2 side roads left to exit !
The stewards didnt have a clue , had little or no radios there was something in the news saying that it was a new company running it this year , some how i doubt they will be there next year !

We had a few problems getting in the base (traffic was backed up past the main P&R site on the south of the base) and someone in their infinite wisdom, decided that we couldn't use the crash gate at the Guardbridge side and directed us into the base just past the main gate, going past the medical centre and dentists on the way to the car park and making everyone park facing west (inland) in the car park on the main taxiway.

On the way out things didn't get much better, a solid line of cars formed and didn't move at all for at least 45 mins. Some chap thought that the plastic fencing used didn't mean anything and drove through it creating another stream of cars, which produced a couple of car parking people. They told us that they would open the road at the end of the runway (once the flying display finished) and get us out that way. Once we'd all figured out how to turn all the cars round, we were able to get out thanks to one chap who was directing traffic.

Once out of the base Edinburgh traffic was directed through the side roads down the East of Fife, which was fun. I think we were lucky as we were near the end of the runway and got out (fairly) quickly.

I suspect that when going in all traffic was directed to one car park at a time, creating a logjam and then trying to get the cars out of all the car parks onto the same roads we came in. It'd be interesting to see what the car figures are for previous years and how they compare.

On the park and ride front, I'd like to see the organisers hiring a special/extra trains to get people to the show, the car parks at Kirkcaldy and Markinch stations have been extended over the last few years, why not highlight this to people?

OK - if there was ever a way to blow a chap's PPrune monica this is it.

I am the Airshow Director quoted above. I do not shirk responsibility and will not transfer blame.

I would like to record my deep and sincere regret that there were some significant delays with traffic management at the RAF Leuchars Air Show last Saturday. Of our 50,000 or so visitors, several hundred found themselves gridlocked as they attempted to depart. I completely understand how unacceptable delays can really detract from what was otherwise an outstanding day.

We have worked hard since last year with our colleagues in Fife Council, Fife Constabulary, and ScotRail to identify ways of minimizing the day’s traffic flow on the relatively narrow roads in the immediate vicinity of Leuchars village. ScotRail ran an increased service on Saturday to enhance our good public transport links. We also opened a new ‘park and ride’ car park with a capacity for 4000 cars and introduced a charging policy to encourage the use of the 2 off-base car parks. I am pleased that people who used these facilities (such as TurningFinals) left with a far better experience than those who parked on the base.

On the day the good weather saw some 12,800 vehicles travelled to the air show. This was an increase of 23% over any of the previous events and one that exceeded our planning assumptions. With the new ‘park and ride’ facilities underutilized, we ended up with more cars on the base than the small roads in the vicinity of Leuchars could cope with during the peak flow of traffic at the end of the show. It is clear that our efforts to persuade people to park away from the Station were insufficient. That, despite our planning, was my failure – we must do better.

My aim was to show off the Service I am proud to be a member of to the public. A huge team of people put together a superb show that has bought plaudits from a many quarters. Not only was the entire Station involved in the air show but also (due to the reduced manning at Leuchars) were approximatley 180 other personnel from across the RAF, council and emergency services and a number of contractors. The dissapointing experience of several hundred people when they came to leave the unit reflects badly on them and their hard work - I have let them down.

I shall do all that I can to ensure that we learn from this experience. In particular, the air show needs to better utilise the benefits of park and ride and public transport to reduce the demand on our limited local road network if it is to prevent a reoccurrence of these regrettable delays for which, once again, I wholeheartedly apologise.

Climb Bear....... Respect!!! Well Done.

Advo :D

Fallmonk and Aeronut - Sorry chaps.

There are very good reasons why the main gate route was not used - I could give you a very long and technical explanation but it basically ends up with the fact that there are only 2 main roads out of Leuchars Village so having 3 exits would not have helped as any many gate traffic would have still had to merge with the other routes which would have caused further delays. I hope that this explains that situation; but it doesn't excuse the fact that you had the end of you day ruined. Sorry again.

I never had my day ruined at all, far from it. As I said, I got into the airshow no problem at all and was kind of expecting traffic on the way back out.

I understood the RAF Personnel and Police were doing their best to get everyone out, but the parking staff were just a joke.

Sorry if I may have seemed overly negative...it's a real challenge to fit 13,000 vehicles into such a remote location and get them out again as well. Perhaps its a shame to overlook the fact that 13,000 vehicles and passengers made the trip in the first place...plus those who went by coach and rail. Scotrail certainly seem to have a very good arrangement in place.

My first memory of RAF Leuchars was as an 8 year old some time around 1980 or thereabouts and it was a double-decker bus there and back....I think it was a queue to get out then as well....but we're British, after all! I've been back to Leuchars since many times, as a youngster, in the service (including arranging a visit for my brother who joined up) and after leaving the service.

Park and ride schemes tend to work well and are actually popular in quite a few places (Oxford, outskirts of Edinburgh) but it is difficult to prise people out of their cars for more ad-hoc arrangements and requires plenty of carrot as well as stick. I will try it next year, would have gone this year but was visiting the in-laws.

I used the northern park-and-ride and had an effortless entrance and exit, so no complaints there. The atmosphere and overall organisation of the show was good and I enjoyed the varied flying programme. Well done to all concerned.

If I have one gripe, it is that virtually all of the static aircraft, including some particularly interesting aircraft (e.g. German special colours Tornado and Atlantic, Czech An-26, Gripen and L-159, Polish C295) were tightly hemmed-in by metal barriers and impossible to obtain a decent photograph of. I'm sure that this is of no consequence to most of the public who attend but it is something that repeatedly frustrates the enthusiasts who are actually most likely to appreciate these more "exotic" attendees. It would be great if there was more "breathing space" for at least some of the static exhibits, so that we could obtain some half-decent photos on the day.

I would also mention the distinct lack of Tornado F.3s - of those on public view, the nicest one ("JU") was tucked in a corner of a fairly dark hangar, another was surrounded by the aforementioned barriers and the third, which flew, did not display as such, making only one flypast with the Cobham Falcon 20s. As the type enters its final months of service it would have been very welcome if a few more could have been towed out for viewing at this, their final base.

Fallmonk and Aeronut - Sorry chaps.

There are very good reasons why the main gate route was not used - I could give you a very long and technical explanation but it basically ends up with the fact that there are only 2 main roads out of Leuchars Village so having 3 exits would not have helped as any many gate traffic would have still had to merge with the other routes which would have caused further delays. I hope that this explains that situation; but it doesn't excuse the fact that you had the end of you day ruined. Sorry again.


Climebear ,
Many thanks for your honesty and openess, dont think you will have any one criticize the actual show as it was fantasic , the only thing that did ruin the day was the traffic at the end , but as you sayed it will be looked at that is good enough for me , and will be back next year but definitely will use the park n ride !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lack of Harriers, F3s, GR4s, Puma and anything AAC was a suprise to me, I was expecting much more but I understand they're all probably overseas at the moment. I thought the civi displays were fantastic though! Especially the blades.

I think I'll probably try the park n ride next time :ok:

Climebear, as a long-time attendee of the show it seemed to me the traffic chaos was due in large part to sending too much traffic South around the perimeter road when a lot of it could have gone North i.e. empty car park 3 both ways. I gather delays to the North weren't so bad. Toilet provision this year was markedly poor as well. Other than that the best I've been to for years, although a Harrier would have been good (and a Saab 340 on static - maybe next year :ok:). I'm not sure about trying to get people to use public transport; there are those who never will e.g. me as 1) it's crap and 2) one of the great things is to stuff the car full of chairs, tables, cases of champers etc and break out a picnic in the car park. One of the reasons it was the best this year was that we parked against the fence near the runway threshold - the best view ever!