A missed connection
Bradford’s rail connections are arguably the worst in Britain relative to its size, made worse after it was overlooked in the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan. Graeme Pickering looks at the potential impact, as the city’s 180-year wait for a through main line continues.
Bradford’s rail connections are arguably the worst in Britain relative to its size, made worse after it was overlooked in the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan. Graeme Pickering looks at the potential impact, as the city’s 180-year wait for a through main line continues.
WITHIN days of beginning his premiership in July 2019, Boris Johnson promised to fund a Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) route between Manchester and Leeds. “I want to be the PM who does with Northern Powerhouse Rail what we did with Crossrail in London,” he said. “It will be up to local people and us to come to an agreement on the exact proposal they want – but I have tasked officials to accelerate their work on these plans so that we are ready to do a deal in the autumn.”
NPR consisted of proposals for new lines and major improvements to existing ones across the North of England from Liverpool to Hull to create a modern high-speed network. In addition to a new line between Manchester and Leeds via central Bradford, the creation of a Liverpool-Manchester route via the centre of Warrington was planned, along with upgrades and journey time improvements for the Manchester-Sheffield Hope Valley line and a connection between Sheffield and HS2 and onto Leeds. Routes to Hull from Leeds and Sheffield would be upgraded and electrified. Significant investment in the existing Leeds-Newcastle corridor, including the East Coast Main Line via York and Darlington was anticipated, as well as the reopening of the Leamside line to relieve pressure on the ECML.
The proposals envisaged that around 80km (just under 50 miles) of HS2 track and links to stations would be shared with NPR, including parts of the Phase 2b western leg serving Manchester and Manchester Airport. HS2’s proposed eastern leg, diverging from Phase 1 north of Birmingham and running north via the East Midlands, was also to be shared into Leeds by NPR services from Sheffield.
Historic underinvestment
Having spoken repeatedly since his general election victory about his intentions of ‘levelling-up’ economic opportunities across the country and, following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, a ‘build back better’ strategy, Bradford was one of the areas in the north where the Prime Minister’s pledge to “redress Britain’s historic underinvestment in infrastructure” had particular resonance.
The metropolitan district is the fifth mostpopulous in England, but the city at its heart is more like a branch line outpost in terms of rail, served by Forster Square (at the northern edge of the city centre) and Interchange (on the southern edge), both of which are stations at the dead ends of their respective lines.
It is all relative, of course. There are communities that can only dream of six trains a day to and from London (four serving Bradford Interchange, operated by Grand Central, and two run by LNER from Forster Square). Forster Square also has half-hourly interval local electric trains to Leeds, Skipton and Ilkley, while there are regular trains from Interchange that also serve Leeds, along with Halifax, Manchester Victoria, Blackpool North, York and Hull.
It may all sound reasonable enough, but is less so when you consider that even direct services from this conurbation of well over half a million people are anything but ‘direct’
“NPR proposed a modern high-speed line between Manchester and Leeds via central Bradford”
in terms of the route they have to take. Services from Forster Square travel via Shipley to reach the main Airedale line, which even LNER trains between Bradford and London must also use to reach Leeds. At Interchange, non-terminating services have to retrace their route back up the 1-in-50 gradient to continue their journeys towards Leeds (via New Pudsey) or Halifax. Grand Central services to London travel a circuitous route via Halifax, Brighouse, Mirfield, Wakefield Kirkgate and Pontefract Monkhill to reach Doncaster and the East Coast Main Line. To Manchester, which is under 40 miles away, the current direct journey via the Calder Valley line can take anything from around 55 minutes to over an hour. To give some context, that is the same duration as a trip between Newcastle and York on the East Coast Main Line, which is more than double the distance. In the middle of last year, when I first spoke to City of Bradford Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe about the situation, she described the city’s current two stations as “not fit for purpose, or properly linked at all” and added: “We’re a £10 billion economy, but if we were punching our weight economically, then we’d be a £14 billion economy and I believe that not being on a main line has directly caused that deficit in our economy for many, many years.”
Transport for the North predicted that, in the form it was originally intended to take, the impact of NPR would be £3.4 billion in gross value added to the UK economy in 2040, rising to £14.4 billion by 2060, with the creation of up to 74,000 jobs (27,000 in Bradford alone).
Through station plan
Building underground platforms, beneath the current Bradford Interchange station, was initially considered for NPR services, but believing that the Government would favour a cheaper option, the council proposed a ground level station on six acres of land in Essex Street, which it already owns, currently occupied by St James’s Wholesale Market. Ironically, this is the site of Bradford’s original Adolphus Street station, built by the Leeds, Bradford and Halifax Junction Railway in 1854 and which stayed open for freight until 1972.
Seen as a catalyst for regeneration, the proposed new station was planned to ultimately replace Interchange, while the market, which has no room to expand on its current site, was to be relocated to take centre stage as part of a northern food hub.
By the time Transport Secretary Grant Shapps took to his feet in the House of Commons to announce details of the £96 billion Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands (IRP) on November 18 last year (see December issue), it was clear that Whitehall had different ideas. Despite being described as “the largest and most ambitious Government programme of investment ever in the railway”, that ambition would not stretch as far as Bradford becoming part of NPR.
The IRP decreed that between Manchester and Leeds, NPR will instead be routed via Huddersfield. There will be a new line as far as Marsden, and east of there the existing route will be upgraded and, as with the rest of the line, electrified.
Giving its reasoning, the IRP states: “We
carefully examined the other options put forward by TfN, for full newbuild lines from Liverpool to Leeds via Manchester and Bradford. They would have made ManchesterLeeds journeys only four minutes faster than the option we have chosen, and cost an extra £18 billion.”
The anticipated journey time for NPR between Manchester and Leeds is 33 minutes, 22 minutes shorter than at present. Bradford’s consolation will be an upgraded and electrified service from Interchange to Leeds “giving a nonstop journey time which could be as low as 12 minutes”.
“Obviously, we’re always grateful for every small investment we get,” explains Councillor Hinchcliffe, “Yes, we need good connections to Leeds. We also need good connectivity to Manchester and Manchester Airport.”
Ignored
Of the IRP, she says: “It’s a sticking plaster on a very old and creaking network, rather than new lines which would have accelerated our economic recovery post-pandemic. We’ve been talking to the Government for years about all this and they’ve been very positive about connecting Bradford, about our station proposals. The Rail Minister was in the House of Commons saying he was well aware of Bradford’s proposal for a new station in the city centre. He may be well aware of it, but they ignored it in the end and that is just a wrong-headed economic decision when they’re talking about building back better, going for growth, levelling-up, all that has to mean something. It cannot just be words.”
Bradford BID (Business Improvement District) supported the city’s NPR plans. As an organisation driven by and supporting city centre businesses, its members have seen at first hand the shortcomings of current rail links.
“Speaking to people, it’s not the time, it’s accessibility and connectivity,” says Bradford BID manager Jonny Noble. “We’ve got colleagues that live in Wakefield. They have to drive because to come in on the train is an absolute nightmare. There’s just no encouragement to get people out of their cars because we’re on branch lines and you’ve got to come in and out to get to Bradford, you can’t get here directly.”
Mr Noble says Bradford’s case was so obvious it “beggars belief” that it will not be part of the network. “We still do have a hugely entrepreneurial young population and that’s not going to go away just because we don’t have a through line, but it will restrict and inhibit some of our economic growth and the opportunities that come with that.”
“People of the north are maybe feeling pretty hard done by just now,” he adds. “The Government might think ‘we’ve made a mistake here, we’re very likely to potentially lose votes in the north because of the decisions we’ve made on the Integrated Rail Plan and Northern Powerhouse Rail’.” Councillor Hinchcliffe concludes: “They’ve set themselves a really low bar of investment in the North, and are trying to get a plan that fits that low level of investment. I’ve not seen any business case come out of the Government for the work they’re saying they’re going to do. In fact, if you look at the plan it all says ‘subject to business case’ after everything and yet they’ve made a decision. “We know our business cases work out, but we’ll keep making the case and keep showing them that they’re wrong and that they need to change tack.”
Previous proposals
Plans for a main line and the benefits it would bring were discussed even before the arrival of the railway in the city in 1846. Although it did not materialise, a route across Bradford was legislated for as part of the original Leeds & Bradford Railway Act.
Over the next 40 years, a number of other schemes were put forward to no avail. They included the Bradford Central Railway, a proposal for which was put before parliament
“A route across Bradford was legislated for as part of the original Leeds & Bradford Railway Act”
in 1884, including a new central station connected via a route leaving the Midland Railway line (north of the city) at Manningham and joining the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (south of the city) at Bridge Street. The Midland Railway proposed an ambitious scheme to link its routes north and south of the city via an underground station at Market Street (see boxout, right). Although backed by Bradford Corporation, it proved too expensive. A revised scheme, consisting of a two-mile tunnel between Low Moor and Ripleyville, a further tunnel under Wakefield Road and a viaduct across the city centre, taking the line into high level platforms at Market Street received Royal Assent on July 25, 1911. Amid the outbreak of the First World War three years later, the scheme faltered and was formally shelved in 1919. “The directors of the Midland Railway have reached a definite decision to abandon their project of West Riding through lines, by which Bradford was to be placed on the Midland main line,” reported the Yorkshire Evening Post on December 19 that year. The newspaper proceeded to detail the original intention, when the parliamentary bill was promoted in 1898, “for the construction of a line from Royston Junction, near Cudworth, to Bradford, there joining the existing line to Shipley and the North” and that only the Royston-Dewsbury section had been completed. Bradford Corporation had urged the MR to reconsider, stating that it was “of vital importance to the city’s progress”. The rebuilding of parts of the city centre had been planned, which it was noted would not only improve the area, but “result in a considerable increase in rates.” A “vast amount of valuable property” including warehouses, over a hundred cottages, a pub and the premises of several shops and small businesses had been acquired by the MR in connection with the scheme. They were transferred to the Corporation the following year for a fee of £295,000.
In the 1950s, the Corporation considered the creation of a route to allow a circular rail service between Forster Square and Exchange. Connecting the two stations was again considered in the 1980s, but rejected after a review of the plans suggested it would be too expensive to operate, visually intrusive and unlikely to generate sufficient passengers to be viable.
The second half of the 20th century saw West Yorkshire’s local railway network shrink dramatically. There was no longer the volume of traffic to warrant a station as large as Bradford Exchange, with its 10 platforms and overall roof. A new, four-platform station was opened immediately to the south in 1973. To reflect the subsequent addition of a bus and coach station, it was renamed Bradford Interchange in 1983.
Across the city, Bradford Forster Square station had also become a shadow of its former self. With only two platforms left in use, it too was replaced in 1990 by a threeplatform station of the same name, which was electrified four years later as part of the Leeds-Skipton scheme.
Decades on, these stations are themselves outdated. Testament to decisions made when a further decline in rail travel was anticipated and long before global warming was a topic of everyday discussion.
City of Culture bid
Bradford residents have been asked to give feedback on a series of proposals aimed at improving the welcome to visitors arriving by rail, along with pedestrian and cycle access to both stations. Plans include the demolition of Hall Ings car park, giving space to build a new entrance for Bradford Interchange. The entrance would be part of a pedestrianised zone leading into an expanded green space at Norfolk Gardens. Buses would operate along a new public transport corridor from Forster Square via Valley Road, Well Street, Vicar Lane and Bridge
Street to the Interchange. The proposals are part of wider changes, which are also aimed at making it easier for people to cross the city centre on foot or by bike.
Whether local pressure can persuade the Government to change its mind on the route for NPR, or the city finds itself making do with an upgraded link to Leeds from Bradford Interchange, Jonny Noble is clear that improvements to both stations must be made sooner. “They are an embarrassment. Let’s just think about the City of Culture bid we’re going for in 2025. The first thing the judges are going to see as they walk out is Forster Square with the lift out of order or the shutters down, or the Interchange where they’re having to run in front of taxis and cars going in and out of the car park. That’s the first impression of Bradford and that’s not befitting of the city at all.”
While Bradford gives an illustration of what local and regional decision makers believe is an obvious ‘levelling-up’ opportunity ignored, it is not the only northern city to feel it has disappeared off the map when it comes to improvements to wider connectivity. An electrified and upgraded connection eastwards to Hull was originally planned as part of NPR, but the IRP has pushed this back to being a consideration for the future, dependent on the core of NPR between Liverpool and York being completed within budget and how “demand and economic growth recover”.
Wider connectivity issues
At a Transport for the North board meeting following the announcement, Hull City Council Leader Daren Hale said: “The IRP is bad for the North, but it is catastrophic for the people of Hull and East Yorkshire. I represent the third or fourth poorest district in the country and this is not going to do anything towards levelling up.”
With HS2 infrastructure no longer continuing northwards, Leeds – despite being at the heart of the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ – will be the subject of a study to examine options to bring services there. The IRP adds: “Safeguarding of the previously proposed high speed route north of East Midlands Parkway will remain in place pending conclusion of this work.”
For planning and starting construction of the West Yorkshire Mass Transit system, “immediate funding” has been promised. The existing trans-Pennine route between Manchester, Leeds and York via Huddersfield will be fully-electrified and upgraded, including the improvement of clearances to allow intermodal container traffic.
With some NPR services now expected to start running before the end of the decade, the Government predicts the benefits will be felt up to 10 years sooner than under the original plans. Ministers say what they have outlined ensures more communities are better connected while still reducing journey times and offering better value for money. The IRP claims costs for building HS2 and NPR in full as originally intended, along with improvements, could have risen to as much as £185 billion.
Board members from Transport for the North have, however, unanimously agreed to work with the Government in the hope of realising their original ambitions for NPR. ■
“The first thing the judges are going to see as they walk out is Forster Square with the lift out of order or the shutters down”