Brighouse railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Brighouse


manager = Northern Rail
locale = Brighouse
borough = Calderdale
pte = West Yorkshire (Metro)
zone = 4
lowusage0405 = 64,419
lowusage0506 = 72,229
lowusage0607 = 87,073
platforms = 2
start = 1840
Closed 1970
Re-opened 2000

Brighouse railway station serves the town of Brighouse in West Yorkshire, England.

The station lies on the Caldervale Line and the Huddersfield Line running west from Leeds. The station reopened in 2000 and is served by local Northern Rail trains.

History

Brighouse railway station was first opened in October 1840, as a main line station operated by the Manchester and Leeds Railway. In 1847 it came under the operation of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway as the M&L was incorporated into this company. The station remained under L&Y operation until it itself was incorporated into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923, throughout which period the station's importance gradually declined as other lines connecting Manchester and Leeds were built via Halifax and Huddersfield bypassing Brighouse. Brighouse station was eventually closed by British Rail in January 1970, remaining closed until 2000, although the line remained open throughout this time, being used by freight trains, and as a diversionary route for passenger trains when other lines were closed.

Brighouse's station re-opened on Sunday 28th May 2000. Brighouse also serves the town of Elland some 3km (2 miles) away. Plans for a station in Elland to open at the same time as Brighouse were cancelled due to lack of funds.

Services

Brighouse is served by Caldervale Line trains, with one train every hour running to Selby via Halifax, Bradford and Leeds and one train every hour in the other direction to Wakefield Westgate via Huddersfield.

From December 2007, Huddersfield Line services call at the station as part of a Hebden Bridge-Sowerby Bridge-Brighouse-Dewsbury-Leeds route. This provides a considerable service improvement providing both a twice-hourly frequency for journeys to/from Leeds and a reduction in journey time taking only 35 minutes to travel to Leeds via Dewsbury rather than 50 minutes via Halifax. Even without this important improvement in services, recent usage figures showed a year on year increase in passenger usage of some 21%.

The station has two platforms.

* Platform 1: served by services towards Huddersfield, Leeds (via Dewsbury) and Wakefield Westgate.
* Platform 2: served by services towards Hebden Bridge, Leeds (via Halifax) and Selby.

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. [http://www.wypta.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/47213667-2BE0-4ED1-82D1-0E319B982594/0/RWG16MAY2008ITEM5.pdf]

Other proposed services

In 2005, Grand Central Railway applied to the Office of Rail Regulation to run direct services from Bradford and Brighouse to London. However, the application was rejected.

Grand Central is planning to resubmit proposals in 2007, and through an associate company Grand Union is also developing proposals for a Bradford-Brighouse-Doncaster hourly semi fast service and for Huddersfield-London Euston high speed services, some of which would start from Bradford serving Halifax and Brighouse.

External links