Teesside Airport.

[AM9]

Just idly browsing the ORR Estimate of Station Usage, I notice that Tees-Side Airport station (TEA) on the Darlington to Middlesbrough line tops (or bottoms) the list with just 4 entries and 4 exits per year.
The current timetable shows just one train per week each way, the eastbound 10:29 and the westbound 12:16.
If the figures are correct, how can this station's continual existance possibly be justified. The additional fuel used in a month to stop and start the train alone wouldn't be recovered with that number of tickets. Why not lay on a cab for when the service is needed?
It's no wonder that Northern has a problem balancing the books.

 

[DarloRich]

Teesside Airport you mean
I assume it is still open as the consultation process costs more than the upkeep of the station. The two trains per week dont really help! The whole airport is becoming moribund thanks to the current owners (imo)

 

[waterlooroader]

Whilst I am usually dead against station closures, TEA is the exception for a number of reasons:

-The station is a good 20 minute walk away from the airport terminal.
-There is no longer a shuttle link from the station to the terminal and to walk passengers need to go along roads with no pavememnts.
-The service at the station is so poor that the airport's own website fails to mention the station's existence (In the section marked "getting here" the nearest stations are listed as Darlington and Dinsdale)
-The airport itself is hardly over-used, with only 161,000 passengers in 2013 (Compared to 745,000 in 2000) the only flights still available are to Amsterdam, Aberdeen and Jersey

A station with only a Parliamentary service, a long distance away from where it actually needs to be, not acknowledged by its catchment area, serving an airport that is in (terminal?) decline. I don't see that the station serves any useful purpose

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's a Parliamentary service as it's cheaper and less controversial than the closure proceedings that are really needed. See also Polesworth and the Stockport-Stalybridge line, and the even more ridiculous cases of Norton Bridge, Barlaston and Wedgwood.

Neil

 

[crehld]

the even more ridiculous cases of Norton Bridge, Barlaston and Wedgwood.

Neil

But unlike Teeside Airport, Barlaston would probably be well patronaged if it were open. This station's closure has more to do with a lack of available paths for stopping services, apparently.

 

[Bletchleyite]

But unlike Teeside Airport, Barlaston would probably be well patronaged if it were open. This station's closure has more to do with a lack of available paths for stopping services, apparently.

The latter is true, but I doubt the former is. Neither Barlaston nor Wedgwood were well-patronised when open, as they serve very small communities and a much-reduced factory, though it would be interesting to see what an hourly service would do. Polesworth, of course, has a stopping service with a fair bit of timetable slack go through it, and I think that's an altogether worse case because it *could* stop if they could be bothered to install a replacement footbridge.

Neil

 

[ainsworth74]

This station's closure has more to do with a lack of available paths for stopping services, apparently.

The line isn't that busy at that point and I feel it's got an awful lot to do with there just not being that many people traveling from the airport and those that do would rather drive to the airport (or get a lift) than faff with the train. It is a dead station serving a dead airport it's just that neither of them know it yet.

The only way it might be useful is if the housing development's nearby every actually happen which is why I would be opposed to demolishing the station but I wouldn't be opposed to mothballing it.

 

[Darandio]

This station's closure has more to do with a lack of available paths for stopping services, apparently.

With something trundling along once every half an hour? Doubt it!

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

They are plans to relocate the station to be closer to the terminal as it was when built.
Remember the station would certainly get more people if the airport advertised the train and the company stopped there.
The airports figures are quite high. Around 500 a day according to someone else on here. It would be higher if it was served better.
Currently it's a missed opportunity.
People get the bus there now.

 

[sprinterguy]

With something trundling along once every half an hour? Doubt it!

Isn't that quote referencing Barlaston, not Teesside Airport?

 

[Darandio]

They are plans to relocate the station to be closer to the terminal as it was when built.
Remember the station would certainly get more people if the airport advertised the train and the company stopped there.
The airports figures are quite high. Around 500 a day according to someone else on here. It would be higher if it was served better.
Currently it's a missed opportunity.
People get the bus there now.

Projects such as those to relocate the station are now dead.

500 people per day is not high at all for an airport of any size and it wouldn't be higher if it was served better, it's already been tried. The owners seem hell bent on running the airport to closure.

It's no missed opportunity at all, I can only assume you have zero knowledge of the airport, it's history or the local area.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Isn't that quote referencing Barlaston, not Teesside Airport?

Possibly yes.

 

[ainsworth74]

The airports figures are quite high. Around 500 a day according to someone else on here. It would be higher if it was served better.

They really aren't that high though. Indeed they're so low you have to pay to use the airport otherwise it wouldn't worth having it open for the owner! More people might use if it was served better but airlines would rather operate out of Newcastle and Leeds/Bradford and I can't say I blame them.

People get the bus there now.

People drive there now. A small minority may take a bus but the vast vast majority drive. I doubt you could tempt them out of their cars with anything less than a Heathrow Express type service.

Even if you spent millions of pounds relocating the station and had trains call at convenient times to drop off and pick up around the times of flights it would still be a small unpopular station. The business case would be atrocious for such an upgrade.

People really need to stop trying to save Teesside Airport station it isn't savable short of enormous, expensive, change.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

They really aren't that high though. Indeed they're so low you have to pay to use the airport otherwise it wouldn't worth having it open for the owner! More people might use if it was served better but airlines would rather operate out of Newcastle and Leeds/Bradford and I can't say I blame them.

People drive there now. A small minority may take a bus but the vast vast majority drive. I doubt you could tempt them out of their cars with anything less than a Heathrow Express type service.

Even if you spent millions of pounds relocating the station and had trains call at convenient times to drop off and pick up around the times of flights it would still be a small unpopular station. The business case would be atrocious for such an upgrade.

People really need to stop trying to save Teesside Airport station it isn't savable short of enormous, expensive, change.

I've seen the airport. It's important for the area, if the airport succeeds the area succeeds.
Even if just 10% of airline passengers and workers too use the train it will be viable to run trains most of the time.
It would look better to use that airport than Newcastle or Leeds-Bradford with National Rail service connections.
Airport passenger levels can shoot up and drop each year.
What this airport needs to do well is:
Good connections so people can use it.
Flights to holiday destinations so people have reason to use it.
And publicity so people know and want to use it.

Many people don't know the station it exists as it has no service that people see. It's not aknoledged on the airport's website.
And the airport has a name trying to pretend it's in Durham!
The airport or the station will need renaming.

 

[ainsworth74]

I've seen the airport. It's important for the area, if the airport succeeds the area succeeds.

Rubbish, the success or failure of the airport is not going to make any sort of significant difference to Teesside as a whole seeing as it already has good links to three decent sized international airports.

Airport passenger levels can shoot up and drop each year.

And the numbers at this airport have been going in one direction and one direction only since 2006 and there is no reason to suppose that they'll ever turn around when there are Leeds/Bradford and Newcastle and even Manchester all within easier reach and all of which will always have better services.

What this airport needs to do well is:
Good connections so people can use it.
Flights to holiday destinations so people have reason to use it.
And publicity so people know and want to use it.

It has good connections via road which is peoples preferred method of accessing the airport. Giving it an improved rail service or moving the station is not going to drive up usage. It used to have flights (seasonally) to all sorts of destinations. Nobody used it then and I don't see why they would now. People in the area are well aware of its existence and always have been. They opted with their feet to use alternative airports.

And the airport has a name trying to pretend it's in Durham!

That I can agree with! It should be renamed back to Teesside Airport!

This airport is dead it just hasn't had the good grace to admit it yet and actually close down.

 

[AM9]

Teesside Airport you mean

I'm not familiar with the area but both the Northern timetable leaflet and the ORR spreadsheet call it Tee-Side Airport.

I assume it is still open as the consultation process costs more than the upkeep of the station. The two trains per week dont really help! The whole airport is becoming moribund thanks to the current owners (imo)

I'm all for not making it easy to close a station but does the process really have to be so expensive? Additionally, should there not be some sort of threshold of service/patronage triggering a consultation. After all, the maintenance of the station and all its liabilities are funded from public money, indirectly through a larger grant/smaller payback if TOC operated or directly through NR as a DfT funded outfit.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

Ainsworth74. My area is very similar to Teesside.
An airport with similar usage, near a rail line but no connection.
Seaside and industrial towns in the neighbouring areas.
Flights to Aberdeen and Amsterdam.

Now Humberside Airport has a Hilton Hotel being built. A new search and rescue centre being built also. And plans to improve the helicopter and freight parts too. All this will create much needed jobs which helps the area. So things can turn around with some help.

If Teesside closes many jobs will be lost. The money will become over centralised in Newcastle and Leeds and not help places like Stockton at all. So the closure you suggest would be a disaster for many who use and work there. And eliminate competition.

AM9. It's never Tee-Side. It has two S's.

 

[AM9]

Ainsworth74. My area is very similar to Teeside.
An airport with similar usage, near a rail line but no connection.
Seaside and industrial towns in the neighbouring areas.
Flights to Aberdeen and Amsterdam.

Now Humberside Airport has a Hilton Hotel being built. A new search and rescue centre being built also. And plans to improve the helicopter and freight parts too. All this will create much needed jobs which helps the area. So things can turn around with some help.

If Teesside closes many jobs will be lost. The money will become over centralised in Newcastle and Leeds and not help places like Stockton at all. So the closure you suggest would be a disaster for many who use and work there. And eliminate competition.

AM9. It's never Tee-Side. It has two S's.

OK as you wish, but you did spell it Teeside and Teesside in your reply to Ainsworth74 above.

 

[sprinterguy]

I'm not familiar with the area but both the Northern timetable leaflet and the ORR spreadsheet call it Tee-Side Airport.

No, definitely an "s" each side of the hyphen in both instances.

 

[telstarbox]

GrimsbyPacer and others may be interested in the DTVA Master Plan, particularly Chapter 5 which refers to the existing station and its potential relocation.

http://dtva-master-plan.co.uk/

 

[DarloRich]

They are plans to relocate the station to be closer to the terminal as it was when built.

Via the wibbletastic Tees Valley metro that will never happen. The station isn’t moving.

I've seen the airport. It's important for the area, if the airport succeeds the area succeeds.

No: jobs makes the area succeeded letting people spend money on luxuries like foreign travel – there aren’t that many jobs going in Darlington or Middlesbrough!

Even if just 10% of airline passengers and workers too use the train it will be viable to run trains most of the time.

Remember the station would certainly get more people if the airport advertised the train and the company stopped there.
The airports figures are quite high. Around 500 a day according to someone else on here. It would be higher if it was served better.
Currently it's a missed opportunity.

It would look better to use that airport than Newcastle or Leeds-Bradford with National Rail service connections.

Hardly anyone works there now and there are 2 destinations served : Amsterdam by KLM and Aberdeen by Eastern (Jersey in the summer but i think that will be cut) The owners have done a good job in seeing off anyone else! Even the air ambulance and copper chopper are looking at moving out!

You could stop every train at the station and it would make no difference. With flights to 2 destinations and Newcastle 30-40 minutes away by car? Not a chance.

People get the bus there now.

No they don’t , they come by car. The nearest the bus comes to the airport is the industrial units on the very edge ( Royal Oak?) - not great with baggage. The access by road is very good so the car will always be the preferred choice.

Airport passenger levels can shoot up and drop each year.
What this airport needs to do well is:
Good connections so people can use it.
Flights to holiday destinations so people have reason to use it.
And publicity so people know and want to use it.

What is needed is a desire by the owners to run a decent airport - they don’t seem to want to sadly, see the £6 passenger levy which was blamed by Ryanair for their decision to leave and they won’t accept charter flights!

Many people don't know the station it exists as it has no service that people see. It's not aknoledged on the airport's website.
And the airport has a name trying to pretend it's in Durham!
The airport or the station will need renaming.

There is little point in the advertising a service. There are few enough passengers to use it! The name is silly though

This airport is dead it just hasn't had the good grace to admit it yet and actually close down.

The airport may be almost dead now but how it came to be deceased is a question that needs to be answered. When I lived in the area it seemed such a busy little airport. To me there is a bigger story than suggested in your posts.

The only way it might be useful is if the housing development's nearby every actually happen which is why I would be opposed to demolishing the station but I wouldn't be opposed to mothballing it.

The creation of large numbers of houses in the area may well provide the opportunity for a resurgence in service to the current railway station - but it may well bring the final end to the airport.

I'm not familiar with the area but both the Northern timetable leaflet and the ORR spreadsheet call it Tee-Side Airport.

Well they are both wrong

 

[ainsworth74]

The airport may be almost dead now but how it came to be deceased is a question that needs to be answered. When I lived in the area it seemed such a busy little airport. To me there is a bigger story than suggested in your posts.

Don't get me wrong I think it's a shame and there are questions to be answered as to how we got here. My point is more that now we are here there is very little hope that things are going to improve. To me it always seemed that losing the link to Heathrow is when the rot really set in.

The creation of large numbers of houses in the area may well provide the opportunity for a resurgence in service to the current railway station - but it may well bring the final end to the airport.

Quite.

 

[DarloRich]

Don't get me wrong I think it's a shame and there are questions to be answered as to how we got here. My point is more that now we are here there is very little hope that things are going to improve. To me it always seemed that losing the link to Heathrow is when the rot really set in.

Agreed - the loss of the London link was the beginning of the end although I don’t think Peel have helped. The £6 passenger levy was a massive blow as was the turning away of the charters. Transport links are the least of the issues!

However, i dont think the local councils had much option but to sell up. They needed the money.

The airport will shortly close and be redeveloped entirely as housing & business units in my opinion which makes me very sad. It should not have reached this posistion.

 

[ainsworth74]

The £6 passenger levy was a massive blow as was the turning away of the charters.

Yeah the £6 was one thing that whilst bad might not prove terminal but the refusing of charters was what made it clear, I think, to everyone that they were in the business of managed decline into closure and sale rather than trying to build it up again.

 

[Hophead]

The airport will shortly close and be redeveloped entirely as housing & business units....

Which will provide far higher demand for rail travel than an occasional flight.

 

[DarloRich]

Which will provide far higher demand for rail travel than an occasional flight.

which wasn't occasional until recently - check out the usage figures for the past 10 years. c.918000 passengers in 2005 down to 161000 in 2013 and that will have fallen further since.

 

[cuccir]

Yes, the airport seems to be dying - it's really only the KLM flight to Amsterdam which gives it any purpose, and even then there is an alternative to/from Newcastle. I suspect that if the oil prices remain low for any period, then the Aberdeen flights will become threatened - I presume that the oil industry is creating the demand for those at the moment? Cargo has not used the airport for several years, and the local authorities sold most of their share a few years back.

I last used the airport in the tail-end of its 'peak' period (2008) and even then it seemed quiet and rundown - I used the bus (which at the time was free from Darlington station) but there were only three of us from our flight on it.

Ultimately, the airport needs to attract back scheduled flights and get passenger numbers up closer to 500,000 before any investment in the station makes sense - and frankly, a free shuttle the 2 mile away Dinsdale station or even better a return to a free shuttle to Darlington would probably be the better investment anyway. I agree that stations like this are a good reason for making closures an easier process!

 

[Cletus]

Blogger Merseytart has just been to the station (with a twist in the story).
http://www.merseytart.com/2015/03/day-four-special.html

 

[Freightmaster]

Blogger Merseytart has just been to the station (with a twist in the story).
http://www.merseytart.com/2015/03/day-four-special.html

Just read the whole blog entry - gripping stuff! :P

A taster:

I ate my Double Decker. I listened to my iPod. I had a pee in the bushes. I wiped my hands with antibacterial gel. And all the time, I could feel the excitement building up inside me. Not long now!
...
I was shuddering all over with the anxiety. Frankly it was a relief when the train finally arrived: I'd have shaken my teeth right out of my face. It was three minutes late, but it didn't matter. I was finally on my way to Teesside Airport.

 

[HSTEd]

Its a nice location for a High Speed station if we ever get a Newcastle route.
Cheap flat land but potential for good transport links into Darlington and so on.

 

[Altnabreac]

Its a nice location for a High Speed station if we ever get a Newcastle route.
Cheap flat land but potential for good transport links into Darlington and so on.

It does seem likely a High Speed line to Newcastle would justify a Tessside Interchange station and the logical location would be between Darlington and Middlesbrough where HS crosses the existing railway line.

My bet though would be for it to be a little further west, between Dinsdale and Darlington adjacent to the A66 Darlington bypass.