A land swap would let train take strain

11:00am Friday 2nd November 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

SO WE are to have a new Park&Ride at Poppleton, with possibly a village green half a mile from the village and across the busy A59.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds are to be spent on a new roundabout, ditto the existing bypass roundabout and new bus lanes to allow 100 or so a day bendy buses which won’t pick up locals en route.

If you leave the A59 heading towards Clifton Moor and look over to your left there are empty fields adjacent to the York/Harrogate rail line.

If a swap was negotiated for the land about to be used for the Park&Ride and we had to pay over the odds for it, there is even a train station – so no need for buses, let the train take the strain.

The money for road works would all be saved and the residents and users of Boroughbridge, Poppleton and Holgate Roads would all feel the benefit.

You only need look at Cattal Station to see how many people park there and use the train.

Barry Rennison, Copmanthorpe, York.

Comments(17)

NoNewsIsGoodNews says...
1:06pm Fri 2 Nov 12

I looked over to the left a few weeks ago, it was covered in flood water and there was a guy windsurfing on it.

Now that is an idea to beat congestion.

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PinzaC55 says...
2:03pm Fri 2 Nov 12

The Harrogate trains have nowhere near the seating capacity to cater for any kind of meaningful P&R and since the line beyond Poppleton is mainly single track it is impossible to lay on extra trains. All this idea would do is to make life uncomfortable for existing Harrogate line passengers.
Plus, fare avoidance between York and Poppleton is widespread due to the guard having little time to check tickets, so if this idea came to fruition most of the passengers would be travelling for free.

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Mr Udigawa says...
2:32pm Fri 2 Nov 12

It's an excellent idea but must be too expensive to implement or it would have started happening already.

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PinzaC55 says...
3:44pm Fri 2 Nov 12

Plus of course the whole idea of Park & Ride is to take commuters and shoppers into town and drop them off at their workplace or shops.
I can hardly imagine somebody lugging a 40" LCD TV up to York station, over the footbridge and onto the crowded rush hour train then getting off at Poppleton and loading it into their car?

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PKH says...
4:50pm Fri 2 Nov 12

PinzaC55 wrote:
Plus of course the whole idea of Park & Ride is to take commuters and shoppers into town and drop them off at their workplace or shops.
I can hardly imagine somebody lugging a 40" LCD TV up to York station, over the footbridge and onto the crowded rush hour train then getting off at Poppleton and loading it into their car?
I could not see anybody lugging a 40" TV on a bus either.

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pedalling paul says...
8:56pm Fri 2 Nov 12

.....or on the back of a bike...? Actually there are a lot of useful bike trailers out there. The ultimate perhaps is a cycle hauled hearse
http://www.goinggoin
gbike.com/blog/the-l
ast-ride/...........
.
But back to the P&R. The train service frequency from Poppleton could never be adequate to abstract a significant no. of car journeys from the A59 corridor.
The P&R site is visible from the A59, and if drivers can see buses waiting to depart, that gives enormous confidence to use the service.
Who knows but that York Central may create an alternative route to at least the inner (City) end of the A59.

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CaroleBaines says...
9:39pm Fri 2 Nov 12

Don't be dafter than you post Paul. If they developed a train and ride site, they would lay on more trains for the 5 mile stretch between York and Pop.

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old_geezer says...
10:02pm Fri 2 Nov 12

"if drivers can see buses waiting to depart, that gives enormous confidence to use the service." True, but knowing the trip won't be delayed by road congestion gives even more confidence! Dedicated shuttle railbuses could offer frequent service and extra capacity/unit.

The political will is lacking, and it'll never happen, but rail would be the most sensible solution.

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PinzaC55 says...
11:59pm Fri 2 Nov 12

CaroleBaines wrote:
Don't be dafter than you post Paul. If they developed a train and ride site, they would lay on more trains for the 5 mile stretch between York and Pop.
Please explain how you would do that? I am a railwayman with 29 years experience and I don't know how you could have sufficient trains from Poppleton where the train frequency is 1 per hour.

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ZachCohen says...
12:00am Sat 3 Nov 12

I don't know why York and harrogate councils haven't got together with network rail. Upgraded the trainline and put in a commuter/p&r station York side of the a1. 30mins train ride to both locations.
They should also look at a small station near the a1237 at haxby. These ideas need to be seriously looked at if we want to reduce the traffic on the roads near the city centre

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PinzaC55 says...
12:45am Sat 3 Nov 12

ZachCohen wrote:
I don't know why York and harrogate councils haven't got together with network rail. Upgraded the trainline and put in a commuter/p&r station York side of the a1. 30mins train ride to both locations.
They should also look at a small station near the a1237 at haxby. These ideas need to be seriously looked at if we want to reduce the traffic on the roads near the city centre
The idea of a station at Haxby (and Strensall) has been mooted for over 20 years, every time an election is near. Every time the cost increases (I think it is near £10 million).
It will never happen so don't waste time discussing it.

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CaroleBaines says...
7:56am Sat 3 Nov 12

PinzaC55 wrote:
CaroleBaines wrote:
Don't be dafter than you post Paul. If they developed a train and ride site, they would lay on more trains for the 5 mile stretch between York and Pop.
Please explain how you would do that? I am a railwayman with 29 years experience and I don't know how you could have sufficient trains from Poppleton where the train frequency is 1 per hour.
Read what I have said properly.

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Even AndyD says...
9:27am Sat 3 Nov 12

PinzaC55 wrote:
CaroleBaines wrote:
Don't be dafter than you post Paul. If they developed a train and ride site, they would lay on more trains for the 5 mile stretch between York and Pop.
Please explain how you would do that? I am a railwayman with 29 years experience and I don't know how you could have sufficient trains from Poppleton where the train frequency is 1 per hour.
The train frequency is one per hour each way at the moment, but surely if a PnR were placed at the site, extra trains could be laid on to cover the Poppleton-York-Poppl
eton bit?

Like a shuttle service?

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barry rennison says...
11:07am Sat 3 Nov 12

Such alot of comments and mostly negative as usual obviously few like change.I bet residents of Boroughbrige road,Poppleton road and Holgate road will see it in a different light.
For Pedalling Pauls info I dont think the extra set of traffic lights at Holgate road are anything to do with cyclists.
Its a smoke and mirrors job to allow 100 bendy buses a day to negotiate a little easier so they can join the other 100 bendy buses from Askham Bar onto Blossom Street on their way in and out of York.

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Magicman! says...
4:13am Sun 4 Nov 12

The only way a park and glide system would work is with tram trains... they would have their own terminus at the car park and so would be off the train line - it would then join the train line to run into the city but would go via the usual freight route so as to be facing northward on approach to the train station so in theory it could diverge off the train line and onto the roads around the station and then continue to the city centre, with a tram platform built in duncombe place or deangate.

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barry rennison says...
3:54pm Wed 7 Nov 12

I will try and answer some of the comments that have been left.
no news is good news - I think this is an attempt at wit as I have lived in York for 65 years and have never seen this line flooded.
Pinza55 says the idea of P&R is to drop people where they work,-York station is no further than Cliffords Tower where the Askham Bar P&R drops people now.
Pedaling Paul says the rail line could never be adequate, Has he never been on London Underground and seen how many people they move? York Cental is still a dream Poppleton train line exists.
Carole Baines- Thanks
Old Geeser says- the political will is lacking- he's right its easier to spend money we dont have. If they were running their own business they would have to spend differently.
PinzaC55 writes he as been a railwayman for 29years and it cannot be done. -Its a good job he wasn't doing his 29 years when they were planning London rail infrastructure Londoners would be in a hell of a state.
Zach Cohen Thinks York and Harrogate councils should get together and upgrade the line and build a newrail station and P&R near the A1,
I think you missed the point Zach Poppleton station allready exists-it's one Dr Beeching missed.
Pinza55 says haxby improvements have been discussed for 20 years and talks of £10 million I refer him to the Old Geezer- the political will is not there vote them out.
Even AndyD- thank you
Magicman says a park and glide system is needed - ideally yes but I am talking of using existing facilities and moving a P&R round the corner which is allready planned and presumably funded.

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barry rennison says...
1:49pm Sat 10 Nov 12

sorry I missed one
Pinza55 says the guard wouldn't have time to collect fares.
Well if cars were charged to park and passengers used this ticket on the train
and the revenue was divided between the train co and the council that would answer that.
But I still think the political will is not there,
the money available is not councillors own so doesn't need to be spent sensibly

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