New framed by old. Modern arch bridge on the Ordsall Chord seen through girders of Quay Street road bridge. Left foot in Manchester, right in Salford. The Ordsall Chord is a new cross-city railway on schedule to be complete this autumn. It will carry Calder Valley trains to Manchester Oxford Road station at the south of the city by the end of 2017. Aims include regular hourly trains from Bradford, Halifax, Hebden Bridge and Rochdale to Manchester Airport maybe sooner than we thought.
HADRAG, The Halifax & District Rail Action Group, will welcoming any rail users, actual and would-be, at the group’s annual meeting on Saturday afternoon 13 May 2017 at the OrangeBox centre, Halifax HX1 1AF; doors open 13:00 (1pm) for 13:20 start. Topping the bill as keynote speaker will be Paul Barnfield who is Regional Director (East) at Arriva Rail North – the train company we know as Northern. Paul will give a presentation on progress and plans for transformation of train services through Halifax and along the Calder Valley under the train operating franchise that has now been running for a year. Paul expects to be joined by colleague Richard Isaac who is Northern’s community and sustainability manager for our area.
Big things are expected, with Calder Valley trains running via a brand new railway to reach the south side of Manchester by the end of this year. Promises for May 2018 include trains to Chester, earlier and later trains on the routes through Brighouse, and, 18 months sooner than expected, through trains to Manchester Airport. We are also hoping for good news for one or two of our line’s “Cinderella” stations including Sowerby Bridge and Mytholmroyd. Northern is now consulting stakeholders on its May 2018 timetable proposals, and HADRAG will be making detailed comments, suggesting areas for further improvement as well as welcoming what is certainly looking like good news.
But with talk of new destinations beyond the big cities, regular users of our peak hour trains may be wondering what is to be done about conditions of overcrowding regularly endured by Calderdale commuters to and from Leeds and Manchester. The franchise promise is an increase in peak hour capacity of more than a third before 2020, including brand new trains for most Calder Valley Line services. Do we think this will be enough? And can anything be done to relieve conditions whilst we are waiting for the promised transformation?
Meanwhile decisions are due soon on transformative plans for Halifax station (pictured at bottom of this post), hopefully making it into the gateway to the town that HADRAG called for years ago. Ambitious ideas aim at a station, not just enabled to deal with growing numbers of local people using the train, but fit also to deal with big crowds attending events at the Piece Hall, fit indeed for continuing growth in rail travel for the next 50 years. There will be an opportunity for HADRAG members and rail passengers to comment on the developing plans at our meeting on May 13th.
Finally, our Elland next campaign remains high on HADRAG’s agenda. Plans are progressing for a station to serve what arguably is Yorkshire’s biggest urban area without a rail service. The catchment area for Elland, including Greetland and Stainland, encompasses a population of over 20,000. We want a commitment from Northern and Network Rail to include Elland in the December 2019 timetable.
-JSW (updated 12.v.17)
Halifax station and its road approach bridge. How can this be not just made a bit better, but transformed as a gateway future-proofed for the next 50 years?
Saturday 13th May: tea and coffee from 1300 (1pm) for a 1320 start
Orange Box Centre, Halifax, HX1 1AF
To venue from Halifax train station — straight up Horton St; turn right by small car park into Thomas St; continue to end and turn right.
From bus station go south along main street past Tesco; turn left at Westgate pub.
Meeting room upstairs — level access by lift.
Guest speakers
Paul Barnfield, Regional Director (East), Arriva Rail North (Northern) on Northern’s service development vison
Chris Hoesli, transport fund programme manager, Calderdale on the Halifax station gateway scheme
Come and have your say!
More Details
This page and next are members’ calling notice and agenda for HADRAG’s 2017 Annual General Meeting along with last year’s draft minutes for adoption. The AGM is HADRAG’s main open event. Formal business will be in the latter part of the meeting, after speakers and discussion. Tea and coffee will be available before the meeting which will open with a short Chair’s report followed by the main item, our guest speakers.
Back in Halifax this year, we shall be pleased to welcome two speakers. Paul Barnfield is the regional director for the train company we know as Northern under the Arriva franchise. Paul will talk about the transformation of services that will benefit Halifax and the Calder Valley Line between now and 2020. And with decisions due in the next few months on plans to transform Halifax station using resources from the West Yorkshire Plus Transport Fund, Calderdale programme manager Chris Hoesli will be bringing us up to speed on what could be planned. So this this is an opportunity to hear about positive developments in the offing and also for members to ask questions and raise concerns.
Campaigners in HADRAG, the Halifax & District Rail Action Group, are calling for Elland to be next new railway station in West Yorkshire following opening of Low Moor earlier this month. We want the Northern train operator (Arriva Rail North) and Network Rail (who oversee tracks and timetables) to declare their commitment to Elland station and ensure provision is made for trains to stop in new timetables planned for the next 2-3 years. Meanwhile we continue to argue for a better deal for Calder Valley stations currently missed out by “semi-fast” or “express” services. We say Brighouse and Sowerby Bridge deserve something more like the service level and quality enjoyed by Hebden Bridge and Todmorden. More below:
First call by a Northern service at brand new Low Moor Station, Sunday 2 April 2017. This 0832 Sunday train to Halifax comes back as a York service at 0852. Weekday services start earlier! HADRAG says the next new station in West Yorkshire has got to be Elland.
Low Moor station is on the Calder Valley Line between Halifax and Bradford. HADRAG joined with other groups including the Bradford rail users (BRUG), and the Friends of Low Moor Station (FOLMS) in celebrating the first trains at Low Moor station on the first Sunday in April (02/04/17). Low Moor is served by hourly trains on the Leeds-Bradford-Halifax-Brighouse-Huddersfield route. It also has intercity services to London operated by the Grand Central open access operator. With the other groups, HADRAG wants to see a better service at the new station and we hope a Manchester service can be arranged to stop every hour by the end of 2019.
December 2019 is the second of two big timetable change dates when services are expected to be transformed under the Northern trains franchise under Arriva. By then Bradford-Manchester should have 3 trains/hour (compared with 2/hour at present) and we say that should be an opportunity to boost the service at intermediate stations, not just provide an extra fast train that misses out a lot of stops.
If increasing usage is the measure (Office of Road and Rail station usage statistics, 2016), Brighouse and Sowerby Bridge should be the Calder Valley Line’s top two stations. (See also our newsletter piece: Two Cinderella stations again top table!)
Usage of Sowerby Bridge station has risen steadily and now stands at 392,000 passengers/year, an increase of 132% on ten years ago. Although passenger numbers are historically higher at Hebden and Tod, their ten-year percentage increase is somewhat less than Sowerby Bridge’s. Sowerby Bridge station serves not just the town itself but also the Ryburn valley and the eastern side of Luddendenfoot. This represents a catchment area of more than 20,000 population, and probably more than that of Hebden Bridge and Todmorden combined. Yet the basic half-hourly service at Sowerby Bridge is only about half the frequency enjoyed by the upper valley stations. HADRAG continues to argue that all of the York-Blackpool semi-fast trains should call at Sowerby Bridge (at present just a few do at peak hours). We also say that when an extra service every hour is introduced between Bradford and Manchester at the end of 2019, that train should also serve Sowerby Bridge.
Brighouse line – and Elland! Brighouse has an even better case for more trains, but apart from some increase to peak hour and Sunday services to be introduced by May 2018, little extra seems to be promised for Brighouse under the Northern franchise. This is in stark contrast to Halifax, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden on the Bradford-Manchester route which will benefit from “Northern Connect” branded regional express services by 2019. Like Sowerby Bridge, Brighouse serves a population covering at least two local council wards – 20,000 plus. The ORR’s figures show a ten-year increase of 476% at Brighouse station which now sees footfall of over 400,000 entries and exits annually. No better than Sowerby Bridge, Brighouse’s best local service frequency is hourly on each of two routes (Leeds-Brighouse-Todmorden-Manchester and Leeds-Bradford-Brighouse-Huddersfield). The Sunday service is at present 2-hourly (on the Bradford route only); the commitment is to increase this to hourly. HADRAG has been pressing for a speed-up of the Leeds-Brighouse-Manchester trains which we say should also run on Sundays. We hope that changes to stopping patterns may see these trains running semi-fast west of Todmorden in the next year or so. A few peak-hour trains on the Brighouse-Manchester route are planned to run non-stop Rochdale-Manchester from December 2017. We do not yet know whether this will become the pattern for all of these trains. Beyond 2019 and Northern’s initial franchise commitments we hope that the Brighouse-Leeds service will also be improved with fast or semi-fast operation. Non-stop running time Brighouse-Leeds is about 17 minutes but the current stopping service takes double this time. This is very much an area where we expect the train operator to deliver beyond its basic franchise commitment.
Which brings us to Elland, one of the top three sites in the West and North Yorkshire new stations study (now getting on for three years ago). The October 2014 Atkins report forecast demand at Elland as 240,000 annually. In the latest feasibility studies, consultants report a strong business case and confirm the buildability of an impressive-looking new station on the strategic site next to the A629 and Lowfields. HADRAG believes this could work well as a park and ride serving the whole “Greater Elland” settlement – again, a population of 20,000 plus. We understand the money for building Elland station (price-tag maybe £14 million) could come from West Yorkshire Plus Transport Fund, though there may be further hoops to jump before that can happen.
And the train timetable must be designed to allow trains to stop at Elland. So HADRAG calls on the Northern train operator (Arriva Rail North) and on Network Rail to declare their commitment now to operating Elland station with a good train service. Every local train that stops at Brighouse must also stop at Elland! There looks to be slack in the current timetable to allow that to happen but obviously with major timetable recasts in May 2018 and December 2019 that allowance must also be built in for the future. Faster line speeds on the Bradford-Manchester route and hopefully a semi-fast pattern for the Brighouse-Manchester trains should make this easier. The railway – train operators and infrastructure managers – should commit to this without further delay or equivocation. What’s to stop them? HADRAG is clear that after massively successful Apperley Bridge and Kirkstall Forge, and now Low Moor:
It’s got to be Elland next!
– JSW
Low Moor, Sunday 2nd April 2016. First train to call at the new station was actually the 0802 Grand Central service to London King’s Cross here seen accelerating away with passengers onboard enjoying the historic moment. Northern’s first local service followed half an hour later.
UPDATE March 2017. HADRAG hopes to make Halifax station plans a central topic at this year’s Annual General Meeting, being planned for Saturday 13th May in Halifax. We should have a presentation from Calderdale council officers, and we are also inviting West Yorkshire Combined Authority and the Northern train operator. Watch out for details of time and venue. Meanwhile here are some points to ponder (just slightly expanded) from our newsletter earlier this year:
HALIFAX station is a mixture of old and new that somehow works. Could it work better? The road approach bridge that once spanned a railway goods yards now separates car-parking from play area on the Eureka childrens’ museum site. It’s a good level access for pedestrians between town and the modern station entrance. Rail users’ car-parking is demonstrably inadequate, and competes with taxis and drop-off/pick-up for space. Viewed from ground level the bridge may be seen as a historical feature that tells a story — or as a barrier between the Eureka site and town-centre attractions. We’ve heard it called an eyesore. With a jocular twinkle in the eye, one HADRAG committee member recently dubbed it a “cast iron leviathan”. Arriving train passengers come out of the entrance and take in a true panorama of notable and some truly great structures—India Buildings, the Imperial Crown Hotel, Square Chapel and the Piece Hall both nearing transformed rebirth, the new Library, Industrial Museum, Halifax Minster.
But the existing bridge funnels people towards Horton Street, dreaded approach that fails to show our great town at its best.
Plans linked to town centre development should move rail-users’ parking to ground level and hopefully create a bus mini-interchange. Beyond that a masterplan hints at what might be done with the approach bridge removed to create an open “station gardens” with pedestrian as well as bus and car links radiating towards the wider attractions. A low-level station entrance could work well with restoration of Platform 3. A third platform would give more space for growing crowds of passengers. But the railway authorities seem to have been at best lukewarm towards the idea. The wider masterplan is truly transformational, potentially linking town and station with a regenerated area around the Nestlé site east of the railway.
The regenerated Piece Hall has potential to attract thousands of visitors to events and many of these could arrive by train. So station access must be adequate to deal with crowds potentially even larger than those of today’s commuters who fill the island platform.
Rail users’ needs foremost, HADRAG is committed to campaigning for retention of level pedestrian access between the bottom of Horton St and the footbridge that leads to platforms. (There is perhaps a small assumption here that the footbridge itself is adequate for future needs.) But does that have to mean keeping the existing road approach bridge? How about a new iconic pedestrian bridge linking to a station with both high and low level entrances. What we do not want to see is the station made less convenient for the large number of existing local train users who access the station on foot via the present bridge. We are actively engaging with Calderdale council officers and elected members to get the best solution for train users whilst putting the station at the heart of our town. —JSW
“Just call us Northern” says our train operating company under the 9-month old franchise. It’s what it says on the “partly refurbished” Class 158 train that’s been running on our line and on the “we are Northern” posters that punningly promote the new franchise. We were politely corrected when we called them “Northern Railway”, though the web branding stands out on posters, leaflets etc. The logo, of course has a lower case initial “n”, a kind of inverted horseshoe (hope the good luck doesn’t run out of the ends). Legally, the new franchise holder is Arriva Rail North Ltd. So (just) Northern is (just) a trading name. And don’t confuse Arriva Rail North with Rail North. The former is part of a group owned by German Railways (but firmly grounded in north-east England). Rail North is the body of nearly 30 local and combined authorities that, in partnership with the Department for Transport (DfT), supervises both Northern and TransPennine Express train franchises. It seems train operators’ parent company names —Arriva or First— are no longer applied to public branding. So (First) Great Western is just Great Western Railway and (First) TransPennine Express is just Transpennine Express (web tpexpress.co.uk). Did somebody say “Bring back British Rail”? Let’s not go there right now!
Network Rail say rail passenger numbers have doubled nationally over 20 years and will double again by 2041. But the top stations on our line can better that! Halifax station usage has doubled in just 10 years. Latest batch of station usage estimates from the Office of Rail and Road reinforce previous years’ results. ORR’s estimates are based on ticket sales. Refinements of methodology over the years mean caution is required when identifying trends. But some trends are clearly significant.
We have again done our homework on the ORR spreadsheet and calculated increases in estimated footfall over the last ten years (up to last spring), as well as the latest year-on-year figures. Our Calder Valley Line (CVL) table is ranked by 10-year growth, and once again Brighouse and Sowerby Bridge come out top. Brighouse has had another growth spurt (8.1% over last year), consolidating a spectacular 476% over ten years. Sowerby Bridge may have levelled off slightly this time — sign of demand starting to be suppressed by service limitations? — but 132% over ten years is still double the national average. These are of course our “Cinderella” stations; they serve medium-size towns comparable with Todmorden and Hebden Bridge but have significantly fewer trains. As we keep telling people, better services at Brighouse and Sowerby are surely overdue.
10-year growth exceeds the national average at all Calder Valley stations within West Yorkshire except Walsden and Mytholmroyd, the latter a significant village halt where untapped potential may emerge when the new car park opens. Overall, CVL stations are a little behind national growth figures, more significantly so on the latest year-on-year results. Again, is this the limitations of provided service suppressing demand?
Walsden is interesting with a sudden apparent spurt against declining trend. Look also at New Pudsey where morning peak trains regularly leave passengers behind. And Bramley, third from the top, last station before Leeds (but compare with Moston at the other end of the line). Any theories?
CVL station usage statistics: entries and exits
(extracted from Office of Road and Rail station usage estimates, December 2016 – growth calculations added for HADRAG by JSW)
As part of the rail investment in the North, Network Rail are investing over £1 billion on targeted upgrades to the rail network, helping to support and grow the regional economy.
The Calder Valley Route Upgrade is part of this investment programme. The route upgrade will deliver faster services and improve connections between key towns and cities across the North.
As part of the upgrade plan, we will be carrying out track and signal upgrades along the Calder Valley route, this will pave the way for faster journeys.
We have already completed the upgrade to signals and track between Manchester Victoria and Littleborough. We are currently working on upgrades between Littleborough and Bradford Interchange.
From 19 March until 15 May 2017 (excluding Easter and Tour de Yorkshire weekends), we will be working weekends to renew and lower track in locations along the route. We’re working closely with train operators to communicate changes to services with passengers and advising passengers to check before you travel at www.nationalrail.co.uk
We understand that our work will also impact on communities (especially people who live and work nearby the railway); we will notify in advance of working, explain what work is planned and when we expect our work to be noisy.
We’re working with businesses, local authorities, media and politicians to make sure the general public know what is happening and when.
We are holding a series of community information sessions about the Calder Valley Route Upgrade; we would like to invite you to attend. Representatives from Network Rail and our contractors will be on hand to answer any questions about this planned work.
New trains, faster journeys, more seats, more often: “Four in 44” — four broad objectives in 44 months from the start of the Arriva Rail North franchise last April, taking us to December 2019. On the Calder Valley Line we are promised a good share of the new trains (which could start to appear next year); and of the faster services, branded Northern Connect (including all Leeds/Bradford-Manchester and York-Blackpools); and of the more often. New destinations will include Chester, Liverpool and Manchester Airport, with an extra train every hour between Bradford and Manchester.
The more seats promise is globally a 37% increase in peak capacity for “31,000 extra customers”. That, we repeat, is by 2019, by which time most of the new trains will be delivered. There will also be lots of units “cascaded” from other train operating companies (TOCs), all of which are to be refurbished to be good as new—which means even better than “partially refurbished” Class 158 train that has been running on our line over recent months, and which Northern admits is work in progress. The cascaded trains will include modern Class 170s from Scotland (promised for the Harrogate and Leeds-Brighouse-Manchester lines) as well as more 30-year old Class 150s. We are excited by the prospect of a “good as new” Class 150.
All the above we knew already. But we do have some simmering worries, to be voiced in more detail in our New Year message to Northern managing director Alex Hynes. In summary.
Worry One. We need more capacity now!
A 37% increase for 31000 “extra” passengers in three years time sounds great unless you are one of thousands of existing Calder Valley Line commuters who, right now, daily endure trains that seem more like 100% overcrowded. People who depend on the train to access employment pay the highest fares to travel on peak-hour trains, but often seem to get the worst service, as they find themselves packed like canned sardines in trains so full that sometimes passengers are left behind.
Northern actually had rolling stock taken off it last summer in a knock-on effect when TransPennine Express lost decent Class 170 trains to Chiltern Railways. One consequence was halving of capacity on two morning Calderdale-Leeds trains. Northern worked with sister Arriva company Grand Central to get a 5-car train running an extra Bradford-Leeds train. That (after some nagging by HADRAG) has now been extended to start at Halifax. We are grateful to Northern for this initiative and their positive response to or suggestion.
But we know, and they know, that a lot more is needed to help with intolerable overcrowding on other trains.
The 0744 Northern service from Bradford to Leeds began last July, operated by a Grand Central intercity train, here seen alongside the 0752 to London. It used to come empty through Halifax causing annoyance to Leeds-bound commuters on the station who couldn’t get on! HADRAG pressed for the new service to serve Calderdale. Arriva Rail North agreed with us but with industry consultations seemingly non-optional for even the simplest, most obviously beneficial changes, it took until December to get the train starting from Halifax at 0728. Northern and Grand Central are both, of course, Arriva-owned companies. Good result! More needed!
Worry Two. Even if we can bear to wait until 2019, how is 37% more capacity going to be enough?
We understand the Arriva Rail North has an option to order more of the new trains —diesels and electrics— that are being built by CAF in Spain.
It is be hoped that when the current order for 281 vehicles is complete, more will be built! …
Worry Three. Delays to the rolling stock cascade affecting planned improvements
Last November, Network Rail issued a media statement announcing that certain improvements to Northern and TPE services scheduled for December 2017 would be “phased”, which of course means “delayed” (though some regional media interpreted the story as good news). We struggled to get clarification on this. It seems projects like the Ordsall Curve —critical to North of England service development— are OK. But late-running infrastructure projects elsewhere, like Great Western Electrification, mean the cascade of rolling stock to Northern could be held up. An email sent out by Northern in the North West suggested December 2017 improvements could be delayed until May’18.
It is not yet clear whether this will affect introduction of the CVL Chester service or Sunday Bradford-Manchester Airport trains, both of which were planned for December 2017.
Worry Four. Refurbishment means pain before gain as trains go out of service for the work to be done. Can’t we draft in more trains to cover?
Northern is still working out what the “good as new” refurbished trains will look like. When the programme is under way, covering everything apart from Pacers (which have to go), it will mean more trains out if service for the work to be done. Which will temporarily reduce capacity even more.
Some have suggested Northern’s rolling stock problems could be addressed by drafting in rakes of locomotives and coaches. Other TOCs have done this and Northern is doing it on the Cumbrian Coast route using old Class 37 diesel locos and rakes of Mk 2 coaches. But that sort of train could not keep up to “sprinter” timings on the CVL, and we hear there have been reliability problems on the Cumbrian Coast. However there may be sets of coaches available if suitable modern traction can be found to pull them. In particular the former “Wessex Electrics”, later Gatwick Express trains of Class 442 are lying idle in want of a new use. Two other Arriva companies have already expressed interest. Alliance Rail wants some for a proposed open access Southampton-London service, whilst Arriva Trains Wales is reportedly proposing to run them with diesel haulage as crowd-busters. There are 24 of these trains, not brand new but decent modern 5-car units that would be much better than a 2-car “150” or Pacer. So how about some for Northern? Modifications would be required; is cost a barrier for a franchise that is otherwise promising so much?
Worry Five. Will innovative rolling stock solutions work?
With delays expected to diesel train cascades, rolling stockleasing company Porterbrook announced with Northern and Rail North just before Christmas that it intends to fit some Class 319 electrics with diesel-generator modules and put in service with Northern by Spring next year. Northern has been using pure-electric 319s for a couple of years on newly electrified lines in the North-West. As “bi-modes” they could be used more widely across the North. Like the Vivarail Class 230 “D-train” which uses former London Underground D78 trains, it is thought the “Class 319 Flex” would have automotive diesel alternator modules installed under the carriages. On 30 December one of the power modules on Vivarail’s “230” prototype caught fire whilst on trial near Coventry. Public trials of the “230” are therefore postponed pending an investigation report. Of course the 230 and the 319 Flex are not the same train and we may be worrying unduly. But don’t blame us for being concerned.
Worry Six. Service development. The Northern Connect promise is excellent, but what about our “Cinderella stations”?
This was HADRAG’s big strategic issue for 2016 and we are not giving up. Latest station usage estimates (next page) confirm the increase in Brighouse and Sowerby Bridge passengers over ten years. Sowerby Bridge is earmarked a Northern Connect station (meaning all-day staffing), but it is still not clear whether there will be any significant increase in trains stopping. Brighouse is to get a modest increase in Sunday trains and earlier first trains during the week, but what else we are not sure. We await detailed plans for service stopping patterns 2017- 2019 with great interest.
The Train Service Requirement commits Northern to a 55 minute Bradford-Manchester semi-fast journey time by 2019. We say this could include a Sowerby Bridge stop giving the station an “express” as well as “stoppers”. And we have of course been saying for years that all the York-Blackpools should serve Sowerby Bridge.
We still hope the Brighouse-Manchester trains may be speeded up with a semi-fast pattern.
Beyond 2020, we hope Arriva will commit to the 4 trains/hour Bradford-Manchester that is West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s aspiration, as well as more trains through Brighouse and fast Brighouse-Leeds journeys.
Northern knows we are their supporters, not naturally complainers. We trust them to deliver. We look forward to good news. —JSW
Network Rail’s HADRAG presentation was about projects in the current 2014-19 control period (CP5) and our guests preferred not to be drawn on any more ambitious aspirations that might be considered in the future. There are obvious projects, some that we have called for in the past and that our friends in the UCV Renaissance Sustainable Transport Group included in a list of priorities published a year ago. Much of this is not so much investment in new railways but more about restoring valuable infrastructure short-sightedly taken away over the last few decades, such as:
Loops/four tracking between Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd to allow freight trains to be overtaken.
Putting back four tracks in the Huddersfield/Mirfield/Dewsbury area creating capacity for more trains through Brighouse as well as on the Huddersfield line.
Halifax platform 3 as through loop.
The “Crigglestone Curve” linking the lower Calder Valley and Barnsley routes for a service through Brighouse to Sheffield —advocated years ago by HADRAG!
And of course CVL electrification via both Bradford and Brighouse.
Sorry Northern (Arriva Rail North), we support all the good things you are doing and planning to do to improve services, but there’s no polite way to say this. Your new line timetable booklets are a dismally poor substitute for the excellent former Metro booklets. As expected, the train operating company has taken over publication from West Yorkshire Combined authority. There seems little point WYCA expending resources on duplicating a role given to the TOCs. Sadly, however, whilst WYCA/Metro’s single Calder Valley Line booklet showed all trains running on our line between Leeds and Blackpool/Manchester plus the Brighouse line, that information is now spread across three or four separate publications. Booklet 8 shows York-Blackpool services only. Booklet 36 shows Leeds-Todmorden-Manchester services.
New Booklet 45 shows all Northern services Leeds-Huddersfield and Hebden Bridge including Brighouse trains. This is a sensible idea. But there are no times shown for stations outside that area, through trains to York, Blackpool and Manchester being indicated only by footnotes with no indication of journey time or intermediate stops such as Rochdale or Blackburn. It’s good to see that Grand Central services are shown. But TPExpress trains on the Huddersfield Line are left out which means there is no timetable booklet showing the complete train service between Leeds and Huddersfield. Surely ridiculous. It’s doubly strange because we were told TPE and Northern would be cooperating, and because Northern’s Wakefield Line booklet (42) also shows East Coast and Cross Country trains. We’d actually like timetables that show all trains on a given route. A separate mini-timetable (44) shows Blackburn-Man Vic “Tod Curve” trains—one of three separate booklets needed to find all trains between the Lancashire towns of Accrington and Blackburn! The new format also means full-line posters are no longer displayed on West Yorkshire stations. And at the start of the new timetable Halifax station had only been supplied with local line booklets, not other WY routes. “MetroTrain” timetables served the county’s rail users well for over 40 years and were also available as an all-county book. What we have now is a confusing mess. We hope it can be sorted out for the May timetable change. It’s in our New Year message to Northern!
Halifax and District Rail Action Group 