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Low Moor railway station

Coordinates: 53°44′57″N 1°45′02″W / 53.74924°N 1.750517°W / 53.74924; -1.750517
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Low Moor
National Rail
Low Moor station on the day of re-opening
General information
LocationLow Moor, City of Bradford
England
Coordinates53°44′57″N 1°45′02″W / 53.74924°N 1.750517°W / 53.74924; -1.750517
Grid referenceSE164281
Managed byNorthern
Transit authorityWest Yorkshire (Metro)
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeLMR
Fare zone3
History
Pre-groupingLancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Key dates
18 July 1848[1]Opened
14 June 1965Closed
2 April 2017[2]Re-opened
Passengers
2017/18  0.133 million
2018/19Increase 0.141 million
2019/20Increase 0.163 million
2020/21Decrease 49,294
2021/22Increase 0.152 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Low Moor railway station serves the villages of Low Moor and Oakenshaw in the south of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The station is situated on the Calder Valley Line between Bradford Interchange and Halifax.

The present station at Low Moor was opened on 2 April 2017.[3] One train per hour serves the station in both directions, and there are also four direct Grand Central services to London King's Cross each day.

Station facilities include 128 car parking spaces, CCTV, accessible platforms, waiting shelters, passenger information displays and public address system.

The station is promoted as a Park and Ride facility, being close to the M62 and M606 motorways. There is also direct access to the Spen Valley Greenway cycle track, part of National Cycle Route 66.[4]

Bus service 268, operated by Arriva provides regular onward connections towards Bradford city centre, Cleckheaton, Liversedge, Heckmondwike and Dewsbury.[5]

Original station

The original station at Low Moor was situated at the junction of two routes - the line to Halifax and Greetland through the Calder Valley and that via the Spen Valley to Mirfield via Cleckheaton, both built by the Manchester and Leeds Railway. It opened in 1848 and initially acted a terminus for both lines, as the continuation towards Bradford Exchange was not yet complete (the tunnels north of the station and at Bowling were still under construction at this point).[1] Through running to Bradford eventually began in 1850, to Manchester Victoria in January 1852 and to Leeds via Stanningley (over the Leeds, Bradford and Halifax Junction Railway) in 1854. Low Moor quickly became an important interchange station, as there was initially no direct route between Bradford Exchange and the LB&HJR route to Leeds and so many trains to/from Halifax and Manchester carried portions for both cities that were attached or joined here (a practice that continued even after Exchange was expanded and linked to the Leeds route in 1867).

A connection to Dudley Hill was later built by the GNR in 1892 and facilities extended accordingly - by the turn of the century there were four platforms in use, along with a large goods yard and loco depot.[6]

The introduction of DMUs over the Calder Valley route in January 1962 saw the loss of much of its interchange traffic and in June 1965, it was closed to passenger traffic under the Beeching axe along with the Spen Valley Line.[1] Goods traffic ceased two years later and the station was then demolished.

The station site was later used for the Transperience museum which was open for a brief period in the 1990s. The Spen Valley Greenway was built on the route of the Spen Valley line after its closure to freight in 1981, as far as Thornhill Junction in Dewsbury.

Present station

A Class 142 at the station shortly after opening

Metro planned to build a new station at Low Moor by 2011–2012.[7] A lack of capacity on the line meant that development was put on hold through 2008–09, until track improvement work at Mill Lane Junction in Bradford was completed and a new timetable introduced.[8]

In June 2009, £5.5 million[9] funding was allocated for the station and it was announced that a detailed design plan and business case would be developed. These were completed in May 2010, confirming the station's location on New Works Road.

After the 2010 general election and subsequent Spending Review, a further assessment of the West Yorkshire Strategic Programme of Schemes confirmed that the new station at Low Moor remained a key priority within the transport aspirations of West Yorkshire.[10] The public consultation for the scheme was held in November 2011.[11]

Estimated completion was delayed into 2015, as the curvature of the track led to complications meeting engineering safety requirements for the new platforms.[12] West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority (WYITA) released funding for the station in March 2014 and submitted a planning application to Bradford Council.[13]

There were further delays during construction of the car park over suspected disused mine workings. Exhaustive surveys initially could not verify their precise locations,[6] but two were eventually discovered under the station site.[14][15]

Opening was delayed to summer 2016,[14] and then to May 2017.[15] This date was revised again, and the station opened to passenger trains on Sunday, 2 April 2017.[2] The total cost of the project was £10.8 million.

Service pattern

Currently, Low Moor has the following service pattern:[16]

From the winter 2019 timetable change, the Huddersfield service will start/terminate at Bradford rather than running through to Leeds on weekdays and Saturdays, but to compensate for this the hourly Leeds - Manchester Victoria - Chester service will start calling throughout the day. This improves the overall service pattern at the station to two departures per hour to both Halifax and Bradford, with hourly through trains to Leeds and Manchester.[17] Sunday services remain unchanged.

References

  1. ^ a b c "List of West Yorkshire passenger stations". lostrailwaysofwestyorkshire.co.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  2. ^ a b "New £10.8m railway station opens in Bradford". BBC News. 2 April 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  3. ^ "Low Moor and Ilkeston join the rail network - Proposed Railway Schemes". Proposed Railway Schemes. 2 April 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  4. ^ "Low Moor rail station". Wymetro.com. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  5. ^ "Arriva Bus".
  6. ^ a b Bickerdike, Graeme (22 July 2015). "The train now arriving". Rail Engineer. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  7. ^ Thomas, Rhys (14 January 2014). "Low Moor railway station plan is on the right track, say experts". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  8. ^ Kilner, Will (1 April 2008). "District to get £8m trains boost". Bradford Telegraph & Argus. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  9. ^ Kilner, Will (31 July 2010). "Low Moor station plan is spared budget cut". Bradford Telegraph & Argus. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  10. ^ "Subject: LTP3 District Implementation Plan" (PDF). West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  11. ^ "Plans for Low Moor railway station to go on show". Bradford Telegraph & Argus. 13 November 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  12. ^ "Fears station plan bid has hit buffers". Bradford Telegraph & Argus. 8 November 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  13. ^ "Plans submitted for £7.5m Bradford Low Moor station". Bradford Telegraph & Argus. 21 March 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  14. ^ a b Wilde, Claire (1 April 2016). "Discovery of aeroplane-sized mine cavity delays opening of Low Moor railway station". Telegraph and Argus. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  15. ^ a b "New station runs into further delay". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  16. ^ Table 41 National Rail timetable, May 2019
  17. ^ Northern Timetable 45: Leeds to Hebden Bridge and Huddersfield 15 December 2019 - 16 May 2020 Northern; Retrieved 29 November 2019
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Low Moor railway station.
Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Halifax   Northern
Calder Valley Line 		  Bradford Interchange
  Grand Central
London - Bradford 		 
Disused railways
Bowling Junction
Line open, station closed 		  L&Y
Calder Valley Line 		  Wyke and Norwood Green
Line open, station closed
    Dudley Hill
Line and station closed
Terminus   L&Y
Spen Valley Line 		  Cleckheaton Central
Line and station closed
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