The Queensbury Lines

The Queensbury Lines were part of the Great Northern Railway in West Yorkshire, England. They opened in 1882 and closed in 1955, however goods trains continued to run until 1974 between Bradford Exchange and Horton Park Station.

The three lines coming from Keighley, Halifax and Bradford all joined up at Queensbury, which unusually consisted of continuous platforms on all three sides of a triangular junction.

Construction

The large viaduct (840 yards long and 36 foot spans) between Halifax and North Bridge was one of the first elements of the railway to be built. The area was densely populated at the time, and many houses had to be cleared.^[1] The most difficult task was the Queensbury tunnel. This was 2501 yards long and 430 ft below ground (at its deepest).

Decline and closure

The final approval of the building of these lines came around the same time as the approval for the British tram system to be developed, and by 1900 trams had become the railway's main competitor. By 1904, bus routes were running from Bradford, Halifax and Keighley to Queensbury. Losses on the trains increased and the railway companies did their best to avoid the end by lowering fares. The line never really recovered. After the war, national railways were run down. However, on the Queensbury lines, there remained 61 trains per day through Queensbury, and one train per day went as far as London. Despite this, after the nationalisation of the railways the line still closed to passengers on 23 May 1955.

Controversy

The local residents took too long to protest against the closure. It was not until a few months before the line was due to close that anyone bothered to protest. During these months meetings were held to find out why it was really closing. The most disturbing aspect of the closure was the contradiction of British Railways. In June 1954, they said the lines were closing to save money. Then in May 1955 they claimed it was due to engineering difficulties. When asked why diesel trains could not be used, the reply was 'no potential'.^[2] A week later, they were asked again why diesel units could not be used, this time they claimed that the gradients were too steep. They were then asked again on 21 May why diesel units could not be used. And for the third time in so many requests they got a different answer - 'We could simply not been able to get hold of sufficient diesels.^[2]

The biggest setback for the campaign to keep the lines open was when Halifax council decided that they would not be taking any action against the closure, despite a large petition. In August 1955, three months after closure, a committee was formed to try to get the lines reopened to the public. In November a re-hearing was applied for, which happened on the 16th December. However, the secretary to the Ministry Of Transport at the time said the closure had been 'Abundantly justified'^[3] and that there was no way of referring the case back to the Transport Users Consultative Committee. He claimed that almost £50,000 had been saved in the closure, and that an average of less than three passengers had joined or alighted at each of the eleven stations. He made it clear that there was little chance of the service reopening. They never reopened.

References