As mentioned inside, West Yorkshire Combined Authority continues to give electrification high priority – including our line. HADRAG also welcomes an aspiration to increase the direct service Brighouse to Leeds to twice hourly. WYCA’s rail strategy is about developing and improving services on existing routes. Improvements we might reasonably hope to see as early priorities! The question of course is where the finance is going to come from. But these kinds of aspirations should be deliverable in a relatively short time and at reasonable cost – unlike either new high speed lines or mass transit. We also welcome suggested enhancements to increase route capacity, for example in upper Calderdale.
Supporting ideas to transform services in the Five Towns around Pontefract we look for a similar approach in our area – not least development of Brighouse (and Elland!) line services. Wakefield and on to York, and Sheffield via a reopened curve at Crigglestone would be destinations to transform connectivity from Bradford and Calderdale. Not everybody wants to go to Leeds!
The Sheffield proposal is listed among other longer term more tentative proposals, including a more direct Sheffield route via the Spen Valley (not Calderdale!). Others such include commuter services from the Worth Valley heritage line; Otley; and the direct line from Penistone to Sheffield
in South Yorkshire, potentially restoring direct Huddersfield- Sheffield trains.
Halifax and District Rail Action Group 