Plan for a new railway station in Bradford will be unveiled as soon as next week – a Government minister has told MPs.
Rail minister Huw Merriman told MPs that the Government will set out its initial proposals for how a new station could be opened in the city within days.
The plans will be published as part of the Department for Transport’s response to a Transport Select Committee report on the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan (IRP).
The IRP controversially dropped plans for a high-speed, Northern Powerhouse Rail station in Bradford city centre in favour of a much more scaled down version of the cross country line.
The station would be for a new line connecting Bradford with Leeds and Manchester, vastly reducing journey times and freeing up existing lines for increased freight journeys.
The IRP instead proposed the route would mainly involve improvements to existing infrastructure – leading to claims from local politicians that the Government had “betrayed” Bradford.
The only positive for Bradford was a proposed improvement of the existing line between the city centre and Leeds – which would be fully electrified.
Mr Merriman’s Transport Select Committee visited Bradford last year as they developed a response to the IRP.
At the time he told the Telegraph & Argus that failure to deliver the station would squander
Bradford’s potential to become “an engine room of the Northern Powerhouse” and “undermine the project of Levelling Up”.
Today, Mr Merriman told the Transport Select Committee: “We remain committed to the core parts of the Integrated Rail Plan, effectively the entire Integrated Rail Plan.
“Where we’ve been looking, following the comments made by the Prime Minister during last summer, was getting better options assessed for Bradford and enabling Bradford to put forward a new station to help them with their city centre regeneration.
“That’s something that we’re very keen to do, which will obviously mean alterations to the Integrated Rail Plan were we to do that, but I believe that will be a positive.
“We’ve been working very positively with the Treasury and also the Department for
Levelling Up with regards to Bradford so I think that’s an area where I very much hope that our response will be welcomed by the committee.
“I can assure you that we remain on track to get that to you by the end of this month, so by next week.”
Bradford Council has been contacted for a comment.
