Insider Media Limited

A direct rail link should be reinstated between Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester Airport, a Midlands business expert has claimed. Jane Gratton, of North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce, said there is now “sufficient demand from both business and the public” to establish a link to the North West airport.

Letters have gone to both Network Rail and the Department for Transport asking for action on the service, which last operated about 20 years ago.

The leaders of Stoke-on Trent City Council and Staffordshire County Council are also backing the bid for an extension of the service to Stafford and the West Midlands area.

A recent Civil Aviation Authority passenger survey found that last year there were 266,000 people from Stoke-on-Trent flying to and from Manchester Airport and a further 223,000 from Staffordshire.

Of these, only 3 per cent of passengers from Stoke-on-Trent travelled by rail, and more than 90 per cent travelled by car.

However, Preston, a similar distance and journey time by road but which has a direct rail link, notched 278,000 airport passengers in 2009, of which 16 per cent travelled to the airport by train.

Gratton said: “If Stoke-on-Trent could increase its rail modal share to the level achieved in Preston, about 50,000 car journeys could be prevented every year. A direct rail link would be of strategic benefit to both the economy of North Staffordshire and to Manchester Airport.”