Bradford Interchange railway station

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Bradford Interchange
Location
Place	Bradford
Local authority	City of Bradford
Operations
Managed by	Northern Rail and Metro
Platforms in use	4 Rail Platforms & 1 Bus Station
Annual entry/exit 04/05	2.401 million **
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	West Yorkshire (Metro)
Zone	3
History
Key dates	Opened 1850 (as Bradford Exchange) Rebuilt 1973 Renamed 1983 Bus Station rebuilt in 1994
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
** based on sales of tickets in 2004/05 financial year which end or originate at Bradford Interchange. Disclaimer (PDF)

Bradford Interchange, is, as the name suggests, a combination of bus and train terminuses. It is one of the two railway stations serving the city of Bradford. The other station is Forster Square.

1 The Interchange
2 Layout And Facilities
- 2.1 Ticket Offices
3 History
4 Ongoing Improvements
5 Services
- 5.1 Rail Services
- 5.2 Bus and Coach Services
6 External links

[edit] The Interchange

The Bus station is managed by Metro, serves services the Bradford District (First Bradford and Keighley and District Travel) and other parts of West Yorkshire (Arriva and First Calderdale and Huddersfield) and South Yorkshire (served by the Arriva X33 bus). Plus also the National Express network.

The railway station part of Bradford Interchange is one of two railway stations in Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. Services operate along the Caldervale Line to Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, Manchester Victoria and Blackpool. The other station Bradford Forster Square is 10 minutes walk away.

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.

[edit] 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, an eatery and sandwich shop and a fast food shack on the train platforms, where hot drinks are also available. The 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 travelers, 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.

[edit] 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 downstairs by the main entrance. The train ticketing office is upstairs, by the pedestrian entrance to the train platforms. Passengers may also purchase tickets on-board trains when the ticket office is not open.

[edit] 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 in 1867, as Bradford Exchange. That station was completely rebuilt in 1880, with ten platforms; but by 1973 it was too large and again was rebuilt on a different site. 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.

[edit] Ongoing Improvements

Apart from the odd flower box, and a fast food franchise serving hot snacks, tea, coffee, and soft drinks, nothing much has changed to the railway part of Bradford Interchange for many years. In sharp contrast, the bus platforms were once more plentiful, however, sale of half of the land owned by Metro aka WYPTE, resulted in the building of an attached call centre for Abbey Bank, (formerly Abbey National and now part of Spanish bank Banco Santander Central Hispano), in the mid 1990s.

Like much of Bradford, the station is ever evolving. Metro are currently considering improvements to the bus and rail platforms, including better access between facilities, and pedestrian access between the bus consourse and the rail platforms, to save walking down and up the escalators [1]

[edit] Services

[edit] Rail Services

Regarding rail services, they are on average every fifteen minutes, Monday to Saturday daytimes, between Bradford and Leeds, and hourly onwards to York and Selby respectively. 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. 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.

Grand Central Railway, a new open-access company that will initially operate 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 [2].

[edit] Bus and Coach Services

Connecting bus services are available to most local destinations, including Leeds, Halifax, Keighley, Ilkley, Otley, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Wakefield, and Sheffield, and further afield using National Express. Evening and Sunday services aren't as plentiful. Most services are operated by the First Group, and others by Arriva and Keighley and District, and two routes by the independent local operator, Halifax Joint Committee (who also operate showbuses at transport museums throughout the UK).

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 central bus station beside Leeds Outdoor Market, opposite the West Yorkshire Playhouse.