Bradford Interchange

Infobox UK station
name = Bradford Interchange


caption =
manager = Northern Rail and Metro
locale = Bradford
borough = City of Bradford
pte = West Yorkshire (Metro)
zone = 3
usage0405 = 2.401
usage0506 = 2.483
usage0607 = 1.515
platforms = 4 rail
& 29 bus stands
years = 1850
events = Opened as Bradford Exchange
years1 = 1973
events1 = Rebuilt
years2 = 1983
events2 = Renamed as Bradford Interchange
years3 = 2001
events3 = Bus Station rebuilt

Bradford Interchange is a combined railway, coach and bus station in Bradford, England.

ervices

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.

Coaches operated by National Express run from their own bays in the bus station to many town 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 to Blackpool North and one to Wakefield Westgate via Huddersfield where customers can change for Sheffield and services to Leicester. Sundays there is an 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.

Future plans from December 2008

Northern Rail have proposed changes to the Caldervale line services from December 2008. Three trains per hour will run between Leeds and Manchester Victoria - one will be the current stopping service, one will go via Dewsbury and Brighouse, and include stops at Moston, Mills Hill and Castleton, and one will be a limited stop service - between Bradford and Manchester the service will only call at Halifax, Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Rochdale. This limited stop service will bring the journey time down between these two cities to less than one hour. [http://www.wypta.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/47213667-2BE0-4ED1-82D1-0E319B982594/0/RWG16MAY2008ITEM5.pdf]

Other plans

Grand Central Railway, an open-access company that operates services between London and Sunderland, has 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 [http://www.grandcentralrail.co.uk/news.html?id=news033] .

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).

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

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 in 1867, as "Bradford Exchange". The station was completely rebuilt in 1880, with ten platforms; but by 1973 it was demmed too large and again was rebuilt on a different site. The old Exchange station being demolished soon afterward & 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.

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. In sharp contrast, the bus platforms were once more plentiful, however, sale of half of the land owned by Metro resulted in the building of a call centre for Abbey bank in the mid 1990s.

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 [http://www.wymetro.com/ProjectsAndPlans/ProposedProjects/BradfordInterchangeImprovements.htm] .

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.

External links

* [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/b/bradford_exchange/index.shtml Bradford Exchange station]
* [http://www.wymetro.com/AboutMetro/BusStationsAndStops/BradfordInterchange.htm Metro: Bradford Interchange]

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