On the Calder Valley line, Brighouse had fastest passenger growth, percentage-wise, for more than 10years before the pandemic. It’s a station with massive potential, but services are now being disrupted for work on the TransPennine Route Upgrade (TRU). The present timetable, June to December, has several dates when services change. When TRU work is happening at Huddersfield, Brighouse is used as a railhead and there are bus replacements for Northern Huddersfield-Halifax trains, plus shuttles Brighouse-Hud for TPE passengers. It is good to see lots of intercity passengers using Brighouse station, but they do not always have an easy time (more on that later).
When the direct line through Dewsbury to Leeds is being worked on, Northern’s Wigan-Manchester- Brighouse-Leeds trains are diverted via Halifax and Bradford, with a bus link Halifax, Brighouse and intermediate stations to Leeds. Leeds-Brighouse takes 65 to 75 minutes on the replacement bus, compared with 35 min on the train. Passengers from upper Calderdale and beyond to Brighouse, Mirfield, Dewsbury etc have to change at Halifax, again with significant journey time penalty. We thought it would be better to divert the Brighouse “valley bottom” service via Wakefield. This would maintain a service for Brighouse and Mirfield.
So we raised it with Northern and TPE contacts and received a prompt reply. The situation is “quite complex”, with both paths (fitting trains in) and platforms at Leeds. Capacity is reduced by freight paths as well as diversions of TPE trains. (We could interpret this as meaning TPE expresses have the advantage over Northern stoppers.) HADRAG may not be quite ready to give up on this. We support the work being done on the TP upgrade. But this work will go on for some time, and it seems wrong that Brighouse passengers are being penalised.
Our email also mentioned the confusing situation with replacement bus stops. The buses stop outside the Brighouse station car park. There are some small, not terribly prominent arrow signs supposedly directing people to the buses. Unfortunately the ones from the westbound platform send you up the steps (though the ramps could also be used) and the along to Huddersfield Rd where there is a bus stop but for service buses, not the rail replacements. People have missed the onward transport because of this. Staff posted on the station do a good job helping people. We gather whenever the bus is due staff go up to collect passengers from the wrong bus stop and bring them to the right one. Could you make this up?
There have been problems with vandalism of the arrow signs, which are fixed to lamp posts using that ultra- modern fixing, the cable tie. Northern/TPE are “considering more permanent signage”.
Finally we mentioned the West Yorkshire Combined Authority rail strategy and the need for progress to deliver a better service for Brighouse – and indeed Elland. How does this fit in with plans post-TRU? What about capacity of the 2-track Dewsbury route, with potential of a fast (limited stop) journey of 20 minutes Brighouse-Leeds? The answer was that Northern and TPE are working with “partners in WYCA, the TRU programme and wider industry to understand what can be delivered in terms of future service patterns”, with a reference to “lots of moving parts”.
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.
Halifax and District Rail Action Group 