“Serious concerns” have been raised over the newly announced plans for a new rail station at Bradford Interchange.

On Tuesday, the Department for Transport announced that a long-planned new Northern Powerhouse Rail station would be built on the Bradford Interchange site.

Visiting the city, Transport Minister Heidi Alexander said the station would improve journey times and provide a much needed improvement to the city’s rail facilities.

But she said it would need to be decided as to whether the station is a through station – something pushed for by local leaders, or remains a “turn back” station.

placeholder image — Visiting the city, Transport Minister Heidi Alexander said the station would improve journey times and provide a much needed improvement to the city’s rail facilities.

Following the announcement, the British Regional Transport Association Northern branch said they had major issues with the plans.

They say the proposals “risk leaving the city with a compromised rail link that fails to deliver faster or more frequent trains.”

In a statement calling for full transparency from transport authorities, BRTA Northern highlighted red flags including

No Fixed Dates.The group says: “The project remains attached to vague 2030s timelines with no binding delivery dates or guaranteed construction schedule.”
No Commitment to a Through Station: “There is no firm commitment to whether the new build will function as a through station or remain a dead-end terminus, leaving the city’s long-term network role uncertain.”
Line Upgrades Ignored: “A new station build alone will not shorten journey times. Faster and more frequent services require a complete upgrade of the bottlenecked Leeds–Bradford–Manchester corridor.”

Chris Hyomes Northern Representative for the British Regional Transport Association, said: “Bradford has waited decades for transformational rail links, but a new station building without upgrading the line to Manchester and Leeds is putting the cart before the horse.

“If we remain trapped with terminus delays, local commuters and businesses won’t see the benefits they were promised.

“Telegraph & Argus readers know all too well how many times rail promises for Bradford have fallen short—we need firm dates and proper line upgrades, not just glossy sketches.”

BRTA Northern is urging the Department for Transport and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to publish detailed engineering plans and commit to upgrading track capacity between Manchester, Bradford, and Leeds.

The Leader of the Greens in Bradford has raised similar concerns. Councillor Matt Edwards (Holme Wood and Bierley) said: “This is long overdue. Successive Labour and Conservative governments have failed to invest in rail in the North, and the Green Party has campaigned for years for a through station here.

“But it’s still not clear from the announcement whether this will actually be a through station, or just another station where trains crawl in and have to reverse back out. Bradford deserves a through station, not another dead end. Anything less would short change our city.

“The people of Bradford have already heard announcement after announcement after announcement about a new station. Transport ministers have made this promise time and again. If this is really going to happen, the government needs to get on with it.”