Written evidence from Nestrans (STA0027)
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Nestrans is the statutory Regional Transport Partnership for the north east of Scotland covering the geographical region of the Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Local Authority areas. This covers approximately 10% of both Scotland’s population and land mass. We have a Board consisting of four Councillors from each Local Authority plus four non-councillor Members.
1.2 Our principal airport is Aberdeen International Airport. This airport is primarily a business airport connecting the north east of Scotland to other parts of the UK and to international hub airports. It is the best connected UK to UK airport and the worlds busiest heliport (c0.5k pax). The airport has a catchment of around 600,000-700,000 but serves over 3.5m passengers per annum. This high propensity to fly reflects both the geography of our area and the industries of the region. It highlights the importance of air travel to our region in delivering substantial economic benefits to both Scotland and the UK. Passenger numbers are anticipated to reach 5m/ annum in the coming years.
1.3 Although outwith the scope of this inquiry it is worth noting the importance of air access to the international hubs. These, including Heathrow, provide access to the world. This is particularly important for the industries in our region including Energy, Tourism and Food & Drink. These are truly global industries which require global access. Given the geography of our region and our relatively small catchment size our access to the markets in these industries is via the hub airports through transfer from an Aberdeen flight. Surface access is either not possible or not feasible due to excessive journey times. The further you are from a hub airport the more important air access to the hub becomes.
2.0 Surface Access to Aberdeen International Airport
2.1 Road
2.1.1 Road access to Aberdeen International Airport has become congested and at times extremely congested. At peak times the roads surrounding the airport can become so congested that the first mile around the airport can take 45 minutes to negotiate. Major road improvement schemes are however underway to ease road congestion in the area. These include the £750m Aberdeen Western Peripheral Road (Transport Scotland, Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Councils) and the £18m new airport link road including a park and ride facility (Aberdeen City Council). When these are completed the nearby Haudagain junction (Transport Scotland) is to be upgraded. These upgrades will provide a significant boost to accessing the airport by road.
2.1.2 There are further business, industrial and housing developments being planned for the area. Developer contribution through our Strategic Transport Fund will help support this development whilst maintaining access to the airport. However further intervention is likely and this is currently part of the City Region Deal negotiations with the Scottish and UK Governments.
2.2 Public Transport
2.2.1 Access to Aberdeen International Airport has traditionally been via car or taxi. There has been very limited access via public transport. Over the past ten years or so there has been a considerable effort by the airport, bus operators, train operators and the local authorities to encourage a growth in public transport access. This has been a successful project resulting in a substantial shift towards public transport access. This can be seen in the figure from our monitoring report below:
Indicator 12: Proportion of passengers through Aberdeen Airport using bus/rail. | |
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Target 12: To increase the proportion of passengers accessing Aberdeen International Airport by public transport to at least 15% of passengers by 2021. | |
2.2.2 Bus
A number of bus options have been tried over the years. The two currently most successful operations include a bus from Aberdeen Rail station & City Centre and a bus link between the airport and Dyce railway station, the nearest station to the airport. The city centre bus has been developed with only minor contributions from the local authorities. The Dyce railway station bus has been developed with funding from Aberdeen International Airport (via a planning condition) and Nestrans but has reached the stage of operating commercially. This has led to the construction, by Nestrans on airport land, of a new bus turning facility at Dyce station to permit full sized buses to operate to meet demand.
2.2.3 Rail
As the figure shows, although close to a railway station the access difficulties between the station and the airport meant that very few passengers used this option. Improvements to rail timetabling and the introduction of a connecting bus has resulted in a significant proportion of passengers now using ail to access the airport.
3.0 Proposal
3.1 The growth of the use of public transport to access the airport is a success story which has to be attributed to those involved in making that success, the airport, bus operators, rail operators and local authorities. However it should also be noted that the Regional Transport Strategy recognised the importance of the airport to the economy and the strategic link between public transport and the airport. The airports own surface access strategy also recognised the need to improve public transport access to the airport and the need to increase public transport’s share of passenger and staff numbers accessing the airport in a period of growing passenger arrivals and departures.
3.2 It is suggested that this strategic context is useful in identifying both the importance of recognising the need for an increasing mode share for public transport but also in concentrating minds on how to achieve such a mode share increase across a number of bodies involved in public transport delivery.
3.3 It is therefore suggested that airports should be required to keep an up to date surface access strategy linked to their development plans and predicted passenger and staff numbers. This document should include targets for increasing mode share for public transport and incorporate an action plan for implementing that mode share increase. This would clearly involve the airport in discussions with public transport operators and local authorities. These strategies and plans should be submitted to the appropriate authorities (DfT, Transport Scotland and LA’s) for agreement and approval.