Bradford Interchange

Vorlage:Infobox UK station Bradford Interchange is a combined railway, coach and bus station in Bradford, England.

Services

Bus and coach

Local bus services run to many destinations, including Leeds, Halifax, Keighley, Ilkley, Otley, Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Wakefield, as well as services wholly within Bradford. Most services are operated by the First Group. Other operators include Arriva, Keighley and District and Halifax Joint Committee.

A Free City Bus service has begun in Bradford linking Bradford Interchange with the main shopping sites of town with Bradford Forster Square railway station and Bradford University.

Coaches operated by National Express run from their own bays in the bus station to many towns and cities within the UK.

The bus station is managed by Metro.

Rail

Bradford Interchange is on the Caldervale Line and is one of the two railway stations serving the city of Bradford. The other station is Forster Square, ten minutes' walk away.

During Monday to Saturday daytimes, services run every 15 minutes between the Interchange and Leeds, and hourly onwards to York and Selby respectively. On evenings and Sundays there is a half-hourly service to Leeds and usually hourly to York.

In the other direction there is a train every 15 minutes to Halifax with two trains an hour continuing to Manchester Victoria (one limited stop, the other serving all stations to Rochdale), one to Blackpool North and one to Wakefield Westgate via Huddersfield where customers can change for Sheffield and Manchester Airport.
Sundays there is a half-hourly service to Halifax with an hourly service on to Manchester Victoria and one train an hour alternates between Blackpool North and Huddersfield.

Due to the geography of Bradford, the station was built as a terminus. Trains have to reverse out of the station, and drivers have to change to the other end of the train.

Other plans

Grand Central Railway - an open-access company that operates services between London and Sunderland, had proposed to run services into Bradford Interchange using both the East Coast Main Line from Kings Cross via Doncaster under the name Grand Central, and the West Coast Main Line from Euston via Stockport under the name Grand Union.^[1] This latter proposal has since been withdrawn, but the ORR announced in January 2009 that they are 'minded to approve' the plans for three trains per day to and from Kings Cross ^[2]. North of Vorlage:Stnlnk these would be routed via Pontefract, Wakefield Kirkgate and Brighouse and be operated under the "Grand Northern" brand name (rather than Grand Central as originally proposed). Full approval has since been granted by the ORR for this service and it is scheduled to start in December 2009. Class 180 DMUs will be used on the route.

Layout and facilities

The main entrance with the taxi rank and car park is on a lower level, while the train platforms and bus/coach stops are on a split upper level, both separate with pedestrian access. Downstairs in the central concourse there are a few shops, a newsagent, a cafe and sandwich shop and a fast food outlet on the train platforms, where hot drinks are also available. Toilets are located off the main concourse.

There is also a British Transport Police office and lost luggage desk, provided for passengers' concern and safety at the railway station, with a separate security and lost luggage unit for bus travellers, on the bus concourse. A smoking ban is observed in all parts of Bradford interchange, and CCTV is also in operation with security officers and police regularly patrolling the station.

The rail station has 4 platforms and a short bay that was previously used for the Red Star parcels facility. Platforms 1 and 2 have a run-round facility for locomotive hauled trains (mainly freight services). The track layout and associated signalling was remodelled during the course of a week-long engineering blockade from 25 October to 3 November 2008 to permit higher speeds on both routes into the station and also allow trains to approach the station from both Leeds and Halifax simultaneously (something that wasn't possible with the old track configuration).^[3]

Ticket offices

Bradford Interchange has separate bus and train ticket outlets. The bus and Metro office, which also deals with National Express coach inquiries from a separate desk, is located in the central concourse. The train ticket office by the pedestrian entrance to the train platforms.

History

LMS Fairburn 2-6-4T 42072 at Bradford Exchange, 1966/7

The original railway station was opened by the joint efforts of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the Great Northern Railway on 9 May 1850, although the station was rebuilt nearer the city centre (on Drake Street) in 1867, as Bradford Exchange. The station was completely rebuilt in 1880 with ten platforms, but by 1973 it was deemed too large and again was rebuilt on a different site slightly further south. The old Exchange station was demolished soon afterwards & like many old railway station sites, suffered the humiliation of being turned into a car park. In 1977 a bus station was built alongside and in 1983 the station was re-named Bradford Interchange to link buses and trains in a covered environment.

Until 1963 raceday specials ran to Wetherby railway station taking passengers to Wetherby Racecourse. These services ceased when passenger services were removed from the Cross Gates to Wetherby line.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the station was considered the main-line station for Bradford with express services to London King's Cross, Trans-Pennine services to Liverpool and Newcastle as well as summer Saturday services to the South-West.

The Inter-city services were moved to Forster Square station in 1992 when the line was electrified. The station also had an adjacent Red Star Parcels terminus but like most other mainline stations following the privatisation of British Rail lost this facility during the 1990s.

Ongoing improvements

The railway station has not seen significant improvements in many years.

The bus platforms were once more plentiful, but were reduced in the 1990s following the sale of some of land for an office development. The bus station was completely rebuilt in 2001.

Metro are currently considering improvements to the bus and rail platforms, including better access between facilities and pedestrian access between the bus concourse and the rail platforms, to save walking down and up the escalators.^[4]

Northern Rail have announced plans to install automatic ticket barriers at the train station. The information displays were replaced in early 2009^[5], following a modest face-lift in autumn 2008 which included new signage and a repaint.

Other interchanges

With the option to combine bus and rail transport, Bradford Interchange allows a flexibility in public transport not experienced in many other major Northern cities such as Manchester and Liverpool. Leeds have recently tried to combine access to buses and trains with a small dual transport terminal, Leeds Station Interchange, however most buses from Leeds continue to operate from the city's main bus station.