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Re: Spokane airport spur // Is there a "real" rail customer?
Author: BOB2
Date: 11-11-2019 - 16:39
A good friend was in charge of aviation planning in Sou Cal back in the 90's when the big base closures were ongoing. The work his group did showed that the only air base that showed any real potential passenger and air freight demand was MCAS El Toro, which modeling showed could have generated as much as 25 MAP (million annual passengers) mostly from the IE/OC/SD markets. It would draw both flights and passengers from LAX. And, the only airport to offer significant congestion relief to LAX.
Well, after the Nimby's got done, MCAS El Toro, is now the "great" park.... And, back then, this was pointed out as yet another justification for HSR in CA, because we won't have sufficient aviation capacity.... Which turned out to be complete bullshit, but....the rest is history....
None of these other closed bases Airports (Norton, George, March) had more than even one MAP, and would draw from Ontario, which back then was only around 4 MAP (like Burbank) and had trouble keeping carriers. Since then, with 9/11, and teleconferencing, and recession driven cuts in travel budgets, CA intrastate aviation growth had slowed, dropped off like a rock in 2008, and has finally slowly crept back up above mid nineties numbers, while national and international aviation number have kept increasing.
Southern California Logistics Airport is my favorite example of what many considered the least viable air base to convert having the most ambitious name.... Bob"s first law of the political/linguistic inverse: The bigger the aspirations expressed in the political name chosen, the more likely it is to be a political turkey...
As to viable rail served industries on air bases, I'm at a loss... As to Norton, I thought there were some rail served industries in that area, I don't know about on the former base these days.
Well, after the Nimby's got done, MCAS El Toro, is now the "great" park.... And, back then, this was pointed out as yet another justification for HSR in CA, because we won't have sufficient aviation capacity.... Which turned out to be complete bullshit, but....the rest is history....
None of these other closed bases Airports (Norton, George, March) had more than even one MAP, and would draw from Ontario, which back then was only around 4 MAP (like Burbank) and had trouble keeping carriers. Since then, with 9/11, and teleconferencing, and recession driven cuts in travel budgets, CA intrastate aviation growth had slowed, dropped off like a rock in 2008, and has finally slowly crept back up above mid nineties numbers, while national and international aviation number have kept increasing.
Southern California Logistics Airport is my favorite example of what many considered the least viable air base to convert having the most ambitious name.... Bob"s first law of the political/linguistic inverse: The bigger the aspirations expressed in the political name chosen, the more likely it is to be a political turkey...
As to viable rail served industries on air bases, I'm at a loss... As to Norton, I thought there were some rail served industries in that area, I don't know about on the former base these days.
