Kirkstall Forge & Apperley Bridge

[stuartmoss]

I went to Kirkstall Forge before it opened and again yesterday. The train I got off was quite full, and around 7 people got off (mid-afternoon), fewer got on, but some did get on. The car park had quite a few cars in.

I made this film by putting together footage from both of my visits:

[youtube]yA7FEQivjZc[/youtube]

All in all I am quite impressed with the station and will certainly use it, albeit sporadically. It would have been even better if it had been built at Kirkstall Bridge, so it served the shopping centre, central Kirkstall, Bramley and Kirkstall Brewery Halls of Residence (1,200 students there) - but nevermind, a new station not quite in the right place is better than no station at all!

 

[drbob]

If all the bus services were redirected it would be quite inconvenient for residents of the Hawksworth Wood estate.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the needs of the Hawksworth Wood Estate are completely ignored. It wouldn't be the first time. Check out this page with an angry letter from the chair of the Hawksworth Wood community association about the history of poor support for the estate and misuse of the section 106 "community and social infrastructure" funds from Kirkstall Forge - a levy on new developments that is supposed to be used to fund improvements for existing residents of an area around a new development which were instead spent on the traffic roundabout in Horsforth.

 

[Grumpy]

So you build a new station at Apperley Bridge. The station's a success. The car park's spaces are fully occupied most days with people having to park on approach roads, pavements etc. The parking situation will now prevent growth in rail use, despite continuing housing development in the area

There's some unused land next to the station car park in agricultural use . Owned by the public sector. So what do you do with this land?

That's right, the idiots are selling it off

 

[IanD]

So you build a new station at Apperley Bridge. The station's a success. The car park's spaces are fully occupied most days with people having to park on approach roads, pavements etc. The parking situation will now prevent growth in rail use, despite continuing housing development in the area

There's some unused land next to the station car park in agricultural use . Owned by the public sector. So what do you do with this land?

That's right, the idiots are selling it off

And they've also reduced the number of buses serving the station encouraging more people to travel by car.

 

[bluenoxid]

So you build a new station at Apperley Bridge. The station's a success. The car park's spaces are fully occupied most days with people having to park on approach roads, pavements etc. The parking situation will now prevent growth in rail use, despite continuing housing development in the area

There's some unused land next to the station car park in agricultural use . Owned by the public sector. So what do you do with this land?

That's right, the idiots are selling it off

Have you got a source for this?

No wait, got it

http://www.wharfedaleobserver.co.uk...ve_been_station_car_park__39__up_for_auction/

 

[quantinghome]

So you build a new station at Apperley Bridge. The station's a success. The car park's spaces are fully occupied most days with people having to park on approach roads, pavements etc. The parking situation will now prevent growth in rail use, despite continuing housing development in the area

There's some unused land next to the station car park in agricultural use . Owned by the public sector. So what do you do with this land?

That's right, the idiots are selling it off

Are you aware of the spending squeeze local councils are under? Retaining land to expand a station car park will be the least of their worries.

 

[Grumpy]

Are you aware of the spending squeeze local councils are under? Retaining land to expand a station car park will be the least of their worries.

Spending squeeze? Leeds have just been given £270m to spend on transport. Some is intended for extending station car parks. I would have thought the money to safeguard this land could be found out of this sum.

 

[deltic08]

Spending squeeze? Leeds have just been given £270m to spend on transport. Some is intended for extending station car parks. I would have thought the money to safeguard this land could be found out of this sum.

But Apperley Bridge is Bradford not Leeds.

 

[Grumpy]

But Apperley Bridge is Bradford not Leeds.

The vast majority of journeys will be to Leeds. Every journey made by rail is one less journey on the congested Leeds roads to the benefit of Leeds citizens and the Leeds economy. I also suspect that a large proportion of the station users are Leeds ratepayers eg from Rawdon

 

[bluenoxid]

Spending squeeze? Leeds have just been given £270m to spend on transport. Some is intended for extending station car parks. I would have thought the money to safeguard this land could be found out of this sum.

Leeds has been awarded £173.5m. The additional money is mostly from First investing in new buses.

 

[30907]

The vast majority of journeys will be to Leeds. Every journey made by rail is one less journey on the congested Leeds roads to the benefit of Leeds citizens and the Leeds economy. I also suspect that a large proportion of the station users are Leeds ratepayers eg from Rawdon

Undoubtedly, but can the money be spent to buy Bradford Met property?

 

[jayah]

So you build a new station at Apperley Bridge. The station's a success. The car park's spaces are fully occupied most days with people having to park on approach roads, pavements etc. The parking situation will now prevent growth in rail use, despite continuing housing development in the area

There's some unused land next to the station car park in agricultural use . Owned by the public sector. So what do you do with this land?

That's right, the idiots are selling it off

The car park is already 300 spaces. It is neither environmental nor sustainable to perpetuate a model where the vast majority of rail journeys begin in a private car.

The rail demand here, as in very many other places will already be constrained by the parking and building ever larger car parks only causes wider pollution and congestion issues.

 

[bluenoxid]

Unfortunately, we are looking at expanding car parks feeding into transport hubs because until the business models for transport begin to be adapted to reflect impact on space and pollution nationwide, we are not going to be able to wean large numbers people off the private car.

The first target will be city centres with clean air zones and workplace parking taxes

 

[xotGD]

Getting more people to park at their local station or at a park & ride facility on th edge of town rather than drive into the city centre is A Good Thing.

Yes, in an ideal world everyone would walk or cycle to the station, but in the real world that isn't going to happen. Without adequate parking provision you firstly get people parking in all sorts of random places causing inconvenience and hazards and, secondly, you put people off catching the train.

Of course, once you have attracted all of these extra passengers, you need to provide sufficient capacity on the trains to accommodate them...

 

[darloscott]

It's great that they've attracted so many new(?) passengers to the rail system however maybe Metro should be figuring out why so many people want to park at Apperley Bridge instead of travelling from home by public transport to start with. Is it a lack of options at the far end of their journey from home? Lack of commuter buses into Skipton station and back home again on a night, for example? That could lead people to drive to another station closer into Leeds.

 

[thejuggler]

Have you actually looked where that land is in relation to the car park and station? It is a walk from the station and its also quite a gradient up Apperley Lane.

Park and rides are for convenience, a long walk up a steep hill is convenient for no one.

One reason why the station is so busy is probably due to a lot of people not actually driving far. There are thousands of houses within 1-2 miles, the bus service to the station is very poor so isn't an option.

Adding a deck to the car park is an option and I suspect it will be needed if a further extension on adjacent land cannot be accommodated.

 

[yorksrob]

When I went by Apperley Bridge yesterday, there seemed to be a decent number of people waiting for the Leeds train.

 

[jayah]

Unfortunately, we are looking at expanding car parks feeding into transport hubs because until the business models for transport begin to be adapted to reflect impact on space and pollution nationwide, we are not going to be able to wean large numbers people off the private car.

The first target will be city centres with clean air zones and workplace parking taxes

You don't need a new endogenous multi modal variable growth model. Go and look at how it is done in Europe.

 

[deltic08]

The vast majority of journeys will be to Leeds. Every journey made by rail is one less journey on the congested Leeds roads to the benefit of Leeds citizens and the Leeds economy. I also suspect that a large proportion of the station users are Leeds ratepayers eg from Rawdon

It doesn't work like that in local politics.

 

[bluenoxid]

You don't need a new endogenous multi modal variable growth model. Go and look at how it is done in Europe.

Are there any specific examples that you want to highlight rather than pointing at a continent?

 

[quantinghome]

Have you actually looked where that land is in relation to the car park and station? It is a walk from the station and its also quite a gradient up Apperley Lane.

Park and rides are for convenience, a long walk up a steep hill is convenient for no one.

Thanks for drawing our attention to this. It appears to have been withdrawn from the auction, but I agree that it would be useless as a site for a station car park extension.