Increase in user numbers prompts backing for second bridge

Aug 1 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

AROUND 2.5m passengers a year will cross the Runcorn bridge on their way to Liverpool John Lennon Airport by 2015, a report has revealed.

The dramatic increase – from a figure of around 1.6m predicted this year – has prompted airport owners Peel to back the Mersey Gateway proposals for a second crossing between twin-towns Widnes and Runcorn.

The survey for Liverpool JLA showed by 2030, 3.6m people will use the river crossing on their journeys to the Speke airport.

The latest figures come as JLA enters its summer holiday season, when as many as 120,000 passengers will use it every week, many of them arriving and leaving via the existing single-span Silver Jubilee Bridge.

The airport’s draft master plan proposals show around 8.3m passengers a year are forecast to be using JLA by 2015, a year after the Mersey Gateway project is scheduled to open.

Council officials in Halton say the resulting extra airport traffic, combined with other expected increases in traffic volumes over the Silver Jubilee Bridge will increase the existing problems of journey time and reliability.

The research is based on new passenger survey data collected during the first quarter of 2007.

Statistics show that almost two-thirds of airport passenger journeys originate form outside Merseyside, with almost 30% of passeng- ers using JLA likely to arrive via the existing Silver Jubilee Bridge.

Robin Tudor, JLA's general manager for Corporate and Community Affairs, said: “We firmly believe the Mersey Gateway project will benefit not just us and our passengers, but also other businesses in the area as it will provide the transport reliability that we desperately need.”

JLA wil submit a formal response to the current Mersey Gateway consultation programme shortly.