Leeds Bradford Airport Parkway Business Case and Engineering Report

wanderingriver · 2 Sep 2026

West Yorkshire Combined Authority have responded my Freedom of Information request for information on their business case on the station. They responded with a business case and an engineering report done in 2025. The link to the FOI can be found here as the files are too big to attach to the post https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/leeds_bradford_airport_parkway_s_2 The business case goes through their plan in 2019 for the construction of the station and the engineering report goes over the feasibility of building the station.

In the response letter when talking about the business case they state,

Attached to this response are two documents. The first is business case document. We should clarify that this business case is not a complete document. It is a draft produced
in 2019, work to update it has not yet resumed, and no date has currently been set for that work to begin. It should not be treated as reflecting the current position on the scheme.

It’s good they are provided the business case from 2019 but it is worrying that that parts of the project are, as I understand, not progressing. While they did an engineering report in 2025, it does feel like nothing is happening and they aren’t too bothered about building this station.

Edited to comply with forum rules

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bluenoxid · 2 Sep 2026

That’s interesting. The comments about Starbeck station on page 22/23 interest me as well. I am guessing that the plan is to extend the York bound platform towards Harrogate and move the current signal towards Harrogate to create an overlap that doesn’t require the barriers on the very busy Starbeck High Street level crossing to be lowered as early as they currently are when a York bound train approaches.

Midland Man · 3 Sep 2026

bluenoxid said:
That’s interesting. The comments about Starbeck station on page 22/23 interest me as well. I am guessing that the plan is to extend the York bound platform towards Harrogate and move the current signal towards Harrogate to create an overlap that doesn’t require the barriers on the very busy Starbeck High Street level crossing to be lowered as early as they currently are when a York bound train approaches.

Road traffic passing over a level crossing is not an obstruction for the purpose of accepting a train on AB. I worked Starbeck as a relief signaller but can't remember whether the barriers had to he lowered to permit a Knaresborough bound train to access the platform ( which woukd have been unusual). But the Chief Signalling Inspector constantly reminded us that drivers must be given green signals whenever possible so moving the signal back towards Harrogate would not reduce barrier down time. That said new signals are not now sited close to level crossings thus an overlap is provided. But again that wouldn't alter barrier down time.

skyhigh · 4 Sep 2026

Midland Man said:
I worked Starbeck as a relief signaller but can't remember whether the barriers had to he lowered to permit a Knaresborough bound train to access the platform ( which woukd have been unusual).

They do have to be lowered before the train can be permitted into the platform.

Midland Man · Saturday at 08:51

Thank you!

Leedslad_ · Monday at 14:50

I remember when they said a direct spur to the terminal was too pricey at £100m...

Now they're proposing close to that for a really naff bus/train combination

cats_five · Monday at 17:52

It will never happen.

quantinghome · Monday at 18:09

Leedslad_ said:
I remember when they said a direct spur to the terminal was too pricey at £100m...

Now they're proposing close to that for a really naff bus/train combination

Just think what the real cost of the direct spur would have been.

Leedslad_ · Monday at 20:43

Just think if the Victorians thought like this... There'd be no Bramhope tunnel either!

class26 · Tuesday at 06:02

Easy jet have just announced they are leaving Leeds Bradford so passenger numbers will fall significantly next yera.

Leedslad_ · Tuesday at 08:54

How many passengers were they handling?

TheGrew · Tuesday at 10:13

Glancing at the Wikipedia page, it looks as though all the destinations are served by other airlines at the airport. When I think Leeds/Bradford I tend to think of Jet2 rather than the others.

Bantamzen · Tuesday at 10:19

class26 said:
Easy jet have just announced they are leaving Leeds Bradford so passenger numbers will fall significantly next yera.

They only had 2 or 3 flights a day maximum, so it's not going to make a massive impact. If anything the other operators may take up the easyJet slots.

YorkshireBear · Tuesday at 11:48

class26 said:
Easy jet have just announced they are leaving Leeds Bradford so passenger numbers will fall significantly next yera.

Will barely make a dent in their passenger numbers. A few flights a day to places that someone else serves. Now if Jet2 were leaving Leeds... That might be different!

yoyothehobo · Tuesday at 13:08

I suggest closing the airport entirely and moving it to Church Fenton to allow a nice little gadgetbahn to run from Church Fenton station to the airport....I like the sound of Church Fenton International

eisenach · Tuesday at 15:16

yoyothehobo said:
I suggest closing the airport entirely and moving it to Church Fenton to allow a nice little gadgetbahn to run from Church Fenton station to the airport....I like the sound of Church Fenton International

It was around as a good idea when I was a teenager in Leeds in the 70s.

rmHawk765 · Tuesday at 16:07

Leedslad_ said:
I remember when they said a direct spur to the terminal was too pricey at £100m...

And, as usual, 95% of this is spent on making plans for who to blame and point fingers at if anything goes wrong...

YorksLad12 · Tuesday at 20:03

As I remember, there were three elements; the station for the airport, a park & ride and a business park (of sorts). The P&R only works if there's a station, but didn't justify the cost of the station on it's own; you needed the business park as well.

I've not heard anything about either for years.

19Gnasher69 · Tuesday at 22:09

I think that the station was originally conceived as simply serving the airport, allied to a bus shuttle.

It soon became apparent that this use alone wouldn’t work, so it morphed into a P&R (there’s a decent catchment - Yeadon, Pool-in-Wharfedale and Otley plus the new housing on the other side of the railway).

Post-Covid the prospective commercial development off Whitehouse Lane seems to have been thrown into the mix. Presumably things have evolved in this way as the BCR was always out of reach!

The WYCA acquired a farm/livery yard some years ago to enable the station to be constructed. I can’t recall whether land on the east side of the line was also acquired.

Kingston Dan · Wednesday at 16:58

They should just close the airport and use Manchester instead - there are more direct trains there from Leeds and Bradford now than there ever will be to LBA.

xotGD · 2026-09-10T07:39:04+0100

Kingston Dan said:
They should just close the airport and use Manchester instead - there are more direct trains there from Leeds and Bradford now than there ever will be to LBA.

There's one train per hour from Leeds and none from Bradford to Manchester Airport.

johntea · 2026-09-11T00:59:23+0100

As much as I'm a fan of rail the last time I went to Leeds Bradford Airport I just caught the bus from (at the time) right outside Leeds rail station which took around 40 minutes, dropped off right outside the entrance to the airport and security took a whole couple of minutes to get through

These days it would only be £2.50 each way too!

MichaelTrains · 2026-09-11T03:27:27+0100

Kingston Dan said:
They should just close the airport and use Manchester instead - there are more direct trains there from Leeds and Bradford now than there ever will be to LBA.

What rubbish.

Bradford has never had a direct link to Manchester Airport.

Leeds Bradford Airport Parkway Business Case and Engineering Report

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