Bradford Crossrail is an idea to link together
Bradford's two railway stations,
Bradford Forster Square and
Bradford Interchange
Bradford Interchange is a transport interchange in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, which consists of a railway station and combined bus and coach station adjacent. The Interchange, which was designed in 1962, was hailed as a showpiece of Eur ...
. Both these stations are
truncated versions of former station sites, Bradford Forster Square station and Bradford Exchange. These stations were built in the nineteenth century by different railway companies with an individual, rather than a comprehensive plan for rail development in the city.
History
Linking the stations was first suggested as early as 1845; however, an Act of Parliament granted to the Midland Railway on the 25 July 1896 permitted them to build a new branch railway from Royston in
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham.
In N ...
to Queens Road north of Bradford. The West Riding Lines Act allowed for a tunnel underneath the east side of Bradford, bypassing Exchange station, with underground platforms at Forster Square and emerging out to serve Manningham and beyond. The tunnel was to be long.
Another proposal was put forward in 1911 and an
enabling Act
An enabling act is a piece of legislation by which a legislative body grants an entity which depends on it (for authorization or legitimacy) the power to take certain actions. For example, enabling acts often establish government agencies to car ...
known as the "Bradford Through Lines Act" was passed. The area between the stations was heavily built-up with Victorian warehouses, shops and offices, so the 1911 plan would have involved a large amount of
demolition
Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...
. This plan called for a line starting near Low Moor with a tunnel with a girder bridge high above Forster Square. The start of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
put a stop to these plans. The Midland eventually abandoned the plan and on the 30 September 1920, it sold all the buildings it had purchased for the scheme back to the Bradford Corporation for £295,000.
Another plan was to emerge in the 1950s when Bradford Corporation members discussed a circular rail service through Bradford using a new tunnel. This would see a train leaving and calling at , , , , , , ,
St Dunstan's, and back into Forster Square (and vice versa). This would use the closed
Shipley and Windhill Line
The Shipley Great Northern Railway branch line was a railway line that ran east, south and then westwards from Shipley to Bradford in West Yorkshire. The route was opened in 1874 to goods traffic and then to passengers in 1875 by the Great No ...
. The tunnel was eventually rejected as the height difference between Exchange and Forster Square of made the gradient unacceptable.
By the late 1950s and early 1960s many of the
Victorian buildings in central Bradford were
demolished
Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...
to make way for the urban vision of the then Bradford city engineer
Stanley Wardley. Although the land between the two stations was cleared to make way for new office blocks and an urban ring road, the plans did not include a cross rail link. A slightly different vision did emerge in the 1970s when the Victorian Bradford Exchange station was demolished and a new integrated Bradford Interchange rail and bus station was built to the south of Bridge Street.
The idea of a crossrail route for Bradford was raised in 1989, when the estimated cost was £30 million. By 2010, when another proposal was mooted, the cost was estimated at £140 million.
Many of Wardley’s highrise office blocks and shops did not ultimately prove successful and by the late 1980s many of them lay empty. An initial plan was put forward to redevelop part of the city centre with a shopping development called the Broadway Centre. Forster Square station was truncated in 1990 and a new station was built some distance to the north of the original to facilitate these plans. The aim was to build part of the new shopping centre in place of some of the demolished 1960s buildings with the rest of the centre taking up the site of the old station. By truncating the station it was hoped that passengers walking to the new platforms would shop in the shopping centre, thus making it more viable. The
recession of the early 1990s however, put paid to these plans and Broadway Centre was never built.
21st century
By 2004 another plan had emerged to build a new
Westfield shopping centre in the middle of Bradford. This led to the wholesale urban clearance of many of the 1960s buildings to make way for the new centre. Although work started on laying the
groundwork for the new shopping centre another recession again put paid to the initial plans with Westfield still planning to build a new smaller centre when financial conditions were more favourable. In January 2014, the site was cleared and steelwork was erected in March 2014 with the main building works following on. The centre was opened to the public in November 2015.
As most of the land between the stations is now clear of buildings this has led to further speculation about the viability of building a cross city heavy rail link.
Bradford Council
City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council is the local authority of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, ...
had discussed plans long before in the 1980s, but linking the stations was ultimately deemed to be too expensive. Today, even with the clearance of most of the land there is no official plan by either the Bradford Council or the
Westfield Group
Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio; ...
to develop a link. Although Westfield did design and fund the new
Shepherd's Bush station as part of their West London shopping development. The development of
Stratford station
Stratford is a major multi-level railway station which rates as the 5th busiest station in Britain, serving the district of Stratford and the mixed-use development known as Stratford City, in the London Borough of Newham, east London. It is s ...
in East London is also connected to
Westfield's Stratford City project.
In 2010, a group of local businessmen and councillors have put forward a plan to link Bradford's stations. Inspired by other rail projects, such as the
London Overground
London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...
link in
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area.
In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...
, the Bradford business plan involved building new Bradford central station linked by a viaduct and track bridging the distance (currently ) and the gradient difference involved. The Bradford Crossrail plan is aimed to stimulate business investment in Bradford, but due to the high costs and major engineering works involved it is not likely to be taken forward at this time as a heavy rail link; however, The One North Report from 2014 suggested a tram-train route from the Interchange via Forster Square and continuing on to Leeds Bradford Airport.
The Campaign for Better Transport support the proposal to join the two stations at Bradford with a crossrail link. The support comes from their Re-Opening Rail Lines campaign, which is focused around previous railways being re-opened.
In January 2019, Campaign for Better Transport released a report identifying the line which was listed as Priority 2 for being built. Priority 2 is for those lines which require further development or a change in circumstances (such as housing developments).
The
Northern Powerhouse Rail
Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), sometimes referred to unofficially as High Speed 3, is a proposed major rail programme designed to substantially enhance the economic potential of the North of England. The phrase was adopted in 2014 for a project ...
project has also mooted a project to link
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
and
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
with a through route at Bradford. Whilst this would either involve a bypass line south of the city and a parkway station at or a new route tunnelling through the city centre, neither option mentions connecting the lines from both north and south of the city.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Bradford Rail Users GroupNorthern Railways Forum
Transport in Bradford
Proposed transport infrastructure in Yorkshire and the Humber