Stating the bleeding obvious...

Here are a couple of news stories about Bristol Airport that caught my eye and also, raised a somewhat cynical chuckle: Travel guru Simon Calder names Bristol Airport as 'worst-connected' to its city - Tristan Cork | Bristol Post | 27.9.24 and: Bristol named UK city with worst public transport link to airport - Hannah Massoudi | B24/7 | 26.9.24. A cynical chuckle shared by quite a few folk who live in and around Bristol. Before I go any further, I'd like to point out the possibly misleading use of the term 'airport' by the two journalists cited above, and also, by the travel expert, Simon Calder.

What they're talking about is an enterprise owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan which has been described by many locals as a massive car parking business with a runway attached. According to Companies House, over a five year period, revenue from parking charges alone was £29,320,000, comprising 34.3% of the airport's revenue. That's a lot of money. You can see why the owners of the airport want to keep as many passengers as possible, coming to and going from the airport by car, because of the revenue from parking charges. There's no real incentive for the owners to improve access by public transport. More people using public transport means less revenue from parking charges, unless they can find other ways to rinse passengers.

The only public transport option to and from Bristol Airport is the bus. The frequency of the bus service starts to decrease after 7pm and when it gets round to midnight, the frequency has dropped off to one an hour. So, if you come into the airport on a late flight and you don't have access to a car, the options available to you are a long wait for a bus or, an eye wateringly expensive taxi journey. Given those options, it's understandable that most people using the airport with access to a car, choose to drive, in spite of being rinsed by the parking charges.

To put it bluntly, Bristol Airport is in the arse end of nowhere. That's not to disrespect the residents of the surrounding areas, it's to point out that it's in a rural location. It's served by one main road, the A38. The 'nearest' railway stations going from east to west are Parson Street, Nailsea & Blackwell, Yatton or Worle. When we say nearest, that's relative because they're all a fair few miles away from the airport. Access onwards from Parson Street to the airport is down the A38, by bus or taxi. Access from Nailsea & Blackwell, Yatton would be down the back roads for much of the way and it would have to be by taxi. There is a bus that runs to the airport from Worle but, that's not all the way along a direct main road so, it may take some time.

The capacity of Bristol Airport is set to expand to 12 million passengers per year. It's the UK's fifth largest airport outside of London. It serves the whole of the south west, all the way down to Cornwall. Any increase in passenger numbers to an airport with piss poor public transport connections is going to lead to an increase in road traffic. I live next to the Keynsham bypass which carries the A4 round the town. People from Bath and further out in Wiltshire travelling to and from the airport, drive right past where I live. I'm noticing an increase in traffic volumes already. So, when it comes to the call for Bristol Airport to be better connected by public transport, trust me, I have skin in the game!

There's no realistic option to get to and from Bristol Airport by train. This stands in stark contrast to Heathrow, Luton, Stanstead, Southend, London City and Gatwick. In 2019, 39.3% of passengers travelling to and from Heathrow did so by public transport. (Heathrow 2019 Travel Report) While this is still a much lower percentage than desired, it stands in stark contrast to the mere 12.5% of passengers travelling to and from Bristol Airport using public transport. (Development of Bristol Airport to Accommodate 12 Million Passengers Per Annum: Parking Demand Study - Teneo Consulting) Remember that in the case of Bristol, public transport to and from the airport is by bus, so at the end of the day, it's still vehicles on the roads. They're hoping that the percentage of passengers using public transport can rise to a staggering 15% but, the underlying assumption is that the vast majority of journeys to and from the airport will be by car.

These harsh facts don't deter Bristol Airport from trying to bullshit people with this on their Travel to and from the airport page:

Rail services

Connect to the national rail network via the A1 Bristol Flyer at Bristol Temple Meads, and the A3 Weston Flyer at Worle Station.

No matter how they might try to pull the wool over people's eyes, the train 'option' still means a journey by road for the final leg to the airport. As already mentioned, parking charges are a big earner for Bristol Airport so, there's not really that much of an incentive to encourage passengers to switch to public transport options such as bus or coach, let alone rail. Given the massive cost of building a rail link right into the airport, it's a reasonable assumption that under current circumstances, it won't happen because no one wants to dip their hand into their pocket to fund it.

Even at its current level of operation, Bristol Airport generates a level of traffic that with the consequent vehicle emissions, is damaging to the environment and to health. On top of this, there's the issue of vehicle noise as well. The ongoing expansion of the airport's capacity means there will be two million extra passengers a year. That means more flights, including night flights between 12.30-6.30am. It will mean many more car journeys a day which is necessitating a massive new multi-storey car park on Green Belt land at the airport. All of this will only serve to exacerbate the already existing threats to the environment and to health.

The increase in road traffic to and from Bristol Airport will inevitably lead to demands for new roads to be built. The proposed extension of the ring road around the south of Bristol, currently on ice, could possibly become an active threat again. Even before considerations about carbon emissions and climate change are factored in by those who see them as serious issues, the arguments outlined above should hopefully make it blindingly obvious that even on sensible planning grounds alone, the expansion of Bristol Airport should have been a no go. However, we live in a system where joined up thinking is in short supply, and the growth boosterists operate in their own silos, unaware of the adverse consequences of their demands for endless growth on a finite planet.

When it comes to those who presume to rule over us, there are no adults in the room prepared to think about how we move to a future where we're not depleting finite resources and in the process of doing that, screwing up the environment we live in and depend upon for our survival. It's down to researchers, campaigners and activists at the grassroots to do that deep thinking and then, to act in a way that will remedy the situation.

Meanwhile, good luck getting to and from Bristol Airport if you don't drive - you'll need it!