Airport offers £2.5m to upgrade railway station
East Midlands Airport has promised to stump up £2.5m if a nearby railway station is upgraded.
The Airport wants to see its nearest train station East Midlands Parkway transformed through new services, improved frequencies and better timetabling. The Airport says these improvements will make it easier for people to access the 14,000 jobs that will be created on the airport site over the next 10 years as the airport delivers its plans to double its passengers to 10m, triple the amount of cargo handled to 1m tonnes and increase its regional GVA to £2.5bn.
Airport bosses say the £25.5m East Midlands Parkway station, which was opened in 2009, is currently left without a service for 45 minutes of every hour and both of its hourly London services leave within seven minutes of each other.
To rectify this situation the Airport is calling for the proposed new services to Coventry, Nuneaton and Birmingham from Nottingham to stop at East Midlands Parkway as well as the extension of current services that serve Stoke-On-Trent to the station.
The Airport is offering to implement a £2.5m Rail Enhancement Package as well as requesting the renaming of the station to East Midlands Airport Parkway, if these improvements are made. The package will include providing transport between the airport and the station and installation of the airport’s departure and arrivals boards in the rail station and vice versa.
The airport has written to every MP in the region to explain the details of its aspirations and set out in full its Rail Enhancement Package. Full details of the airports aspirations and enhancement package are below.
Andy Cliffe, managing director of East Midlands Airport, said: “Over the course of the next East Midlands Rail franchise the airport will double the amount of people flying from here, triple the amount of cargo we handle and have three times more people working onsite. To ensure that people can access these opportunities we need better rail links to the airport, including new links to areas such as Coventry, Nuneaton and Birmingham as well as more frequent services to Derby, Leicester and Nottingham.
“The DfT has made it clear in their consultation documents that they are committed to improving links to the airport and we have announced a £2.5m Rail Enhancement Package to show how committed we are to these improvements too. The package will deliver improved customer service, direct links between the station and our terminal, provide a better service for our local community and help people access the thousands of jobs we will create during this franchise.”
