Saturday 15th June 2024
Bradford city centre is in a bit of mess at the moment. The city’s large multi-level Transport Interchange closed overnight back in January due to structural safety concerns leading to dozens of terminating buses per hour being dispersed to surrounding streets…
… then in April work began on a major pedestrianisation of a large part of the city centre meaning more disruption to bus routes.
I paid a visit to the closed Interchange during my week’s countrywide wanderings at the beginning of the month and thought readers might be interested in what I found.
As you can see from the first photograph above, the shutter is down on the pedestrian connection between the exit from the railway station platforms and the adjacent normally bustling bus station used by around nine million passengers a year.
It’s an errie feeling peering into the deserted area leading to the upper deck concourse and bus departure area…
… which is normally very busy with both passengers and departures as recalled below on a previous visit.
You can’t miss the fact the main ground floor pedestrian entrance…
… into the Transport Interchange is closed.
The doors are covered in repetitive posters announcing this…
…which also prevents passengers from peering through the glass panels, which looks like it’s the main idea…
… although round the corner you can do just that.
It’s good to see a comprehensive listing explaining the replacement bus stops for each route…
… together with a map showing the location of each stop.
Changes were made to these arrangements from mid April to take account of the pedestrianisation work commencing and updated maps are on display including at all the temporary bus stops.
There’s also a leaflet available – if you ask for it – none were out on display …
… in the ‘temporary’ relocated West Yorkshire Combined Authority run Metro Travel Office now alongside the Northern run rail ticket office.
The big question now is …. what is to happen to the Interchange? Will it be repaired and returned to use or will it be permanently closed?
At the moment access to the rail station is by a rather depressing looking ramp alongside the Interchange…
… and through a side door, which isn’t a particularly welcome entrance.
An update from the Combined Authority last month confirmed the Interchange will remain closed until at least September while in-depth surveys are carried out to determine if it can ever safely reopen.
The update explained “Bradford Interchange is a large and complex structure which has posed several challenges over the years due to a longstanding problem with water leakage. The bus station was constructed in the mid 1970s – and it is reaching the end of its expected 50-year lifespan. The structure is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and operate safely.
“Following its closure in January as a result of damage caused by severe water ingress, and concrete falling within the Interchange basement, an initial survey found that drainage issues have resulted in widespread water leakage and corrosion to steelwork, but further, more in-depth surveys were required.
These are underway and the Interchange will now remain shut until at least September so that they can be completed, and a decision can be taken on next steps – either a permanent closure, partial reopening or full reopening. The options will be presented to the September meeting of the Combined Authority.”
Having read the initial survey report I’m very pessimistic the Interchange will ever reopen. If that turns out to be the case, it presents Bradford with a major challenge, not least because of the pedestrianisation scheme now being enacted and Bradford being the City of Culture in 2025 when a large influx of visitors and tourists are anticipated.
Indeed at the end of last month the Authority announced “plans are now in place to create an enhanced rail gateway from the Interchange train station, drawing on £22 million of funding previously set aside for Bradford Interchange improvements.”
It’s pertinent to note the reference to the Interchange being a “rail gateway” in the announcement.
Since the bus station closure, Jacobs Well car park has been used by bus operators as a layover area but that site is required by Bradford Council by the end of this year. Work is underway to look for viable alternatives “focusing on a number of on and off-street options”.
Ominously the Authority report “since the closure of Bradford Interchange, patronage on central Bradford services has been performing less well than other services in West Yorkshire in a year-on-year comparison. This gap has worsened since last month. This will continue to be closely monitored.”
When you also see city centre roads that for generations have been used by buses with conveniently located bus stops such as Market Street…
… Hall Ings…
… and Bridge Street have now seen see all buses withdrawn…
… in favour of the city’s pedsetrianised vision…
…it’ll be interesting to see if the result is a regenerational boost for the city centre and the Council’s vision of “transforming transport and travel into and around the city centre” to deliver its ambition to “create new jobs, and to create an environment that means more people choose to live in the city centre”…
…. and use buses. Or not,
Roger French
Temporary enhanced blogging timetable continues for a few more days yet: 06:00 Daily.
Comments on today’s blog are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.
BusAndTrainUser 
Great to see your on the case Roger
Mr David Watkins
LikeLike
Even until it closed recently, the bus side of the Interchange was a shadow of its former self compared to the size of the place in the 80s. Bradford talks about the influx of visitors next year but as usual the way the bus operators are treated means one of the best ways to transport people about isn’t being given the priority it deserves….
LikeLike
It seems to be a habit will LA’s. Run bus stations and interchanges down and then close them
LikeLike
Really anon? West Yorkshire has a very strong record of investment in bus stations. Rebuilt one in Halifax, new one for Heckmondwike, Dewsbury to be rebuilt.
The reduction of size of Bradford is connected with the long term issues with the site and moving from a run through to a sawtooth design.
BW2
LikeLike
Seem to remember going to Huddersfield Bus Station also in West Yorkshire a few years back – of similar vintage [mid 70s] was most impressed, Far better than my local bus station here in Oxford [Gloucester Green] which is appalling – it is embarrassing first impression for the amount tourists that visit the city. One for Roger to investigate sometime.
LikeLike
I must admit that Bradford is not really on my radar as I have not visited for decades. However this is another worrying development in West Yorkshire.
Clearly the problems with the structure of the interchange were known about for some time, but preventative work was either not undertaken or was ineffective.
Moving onto the pedestrianisation scheme, did bus operators agree to this? My understanding is that when a bus route is changed permanently as part of a discretionary scheme, as it appears to have been here, then a bus operator objection to a Traffic Regulation Order would trigger a Public Inquiry. Less reputable councils often try to circumvent the regulations by introducing experimental orders, but the engineering for a pedestrianisation would suggest this is not experimental at all.
So as an outsider it appears to me that the local authority has not maintained its assets, has made things worse for public transport users (and operators) and is making the city less attractive by having buses hanging around the central area with nowhere to go. Government should consider this when deciding where to provide funding.
Gareth Cheeseman
LikeLike
The thing that Roger has not focused on enough is how bad it’s been getting to actually catch a bus at many of the alternative bus stop sites. Passengers have faced unpublicised bus stop closures due to damage to road sufaces caused by recent storms, passengers on a number of occasions have actually had to step in front of buses to stop them going past the stop they are supposed to use, and passengers have been face planted onto buses when the bus has stopped far from the curb and they’ve tripped trying to board! Buses are actually dangerous to catch in Bradford which is something that needs to be highlighted, not only that but they are making it almost impossible to catch one if you’re in a wheelchair, try hauling yourself up the hill on Bridge Street or boarding in the middle of the road by the Jacobs Well stop when a bus can’t pull in due to the roadworks. Tracy the Breadbin is the most useless human on earth, she either knows this is going on and can’t be bothered or she doesn’t know which clearly shows she isn’t doing her job, as head of WYCA she should know every little detail as to what goes on in her organisation, and this Bradford farce can hardly be called a little detail!
LikeLike
Thinking back to the construction (and subsequent reconfiguration) of the Interchange I don’t recall any mention of it having an expected 50 year life. If that were the case then surely Metro ought to have been working on a plan for a replacement, rather than being forced into a sudden and unexpected closure. As earlier comments have indicated, the city centre is a mess in many ways and this is caused by a public body, not the accursed privatised bus operators. Sadly, none of us are perfect and it is a dangerous assumption to have a blanket opinion that public ownership = good and private = bad.
Still, the good news for me is that if I were Bradford Interchange I would be 20 years older than my deign life and still functioning reasonably well!
John Carr
LikeLike
Welcome to Third World Britain. This is fast becoming a country where hardly anything works.
LikeLike
Well said
LikeLike
As a critic of Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, at least she has had the decency to apologise to passengers for the massive inconvenience this causes.
Sadly, the only reason to visit Bradford is its culture – theatre, cinema, media museum etc. The Town Hall is a sight to behold when lit up. But the shopping experience has just deteriorated even more with Marks & Spencer closing their store last month.
There’s still one Wetherspoons left but sadly, it’s a place you go through to get somewhere else.
Paul Kirby, Wetherby
LikeLike
As someone else has hinted, it is even worse than it looks. Despite knowing that the interchange was closed and what day the local road network would be changed, the stops were not ready and too many routes were put onto single stops where 2 or 3 were needed. So there were up to 4 bus loads of people stood in the driving rain as the shelter was none existent or too small. At first only the terminal stops were publicised despite each route having up to 4 pick-up and set down points in the city centre changed because of rerouting. I emailed Keighley and District, who immediately updated their website. I also emailed WYCA and First. Soon WYCA updated their website, but later reverted to termini only info and created a few more, but not enough, bus stops. They are still not fit for purpose forcing drivers to make unhelpful ad hoc arrangements as to where they pick up and drop off.
The new bus routes are not wide enough for the amount of use and many buses have been running 2 or more hours late. WYCA will say this proves the case for franchising!
WYCA has a huge number of staff but very few successful projects. Their bus stations are brutalist and have few retail outlets. When you see bus stations like Leicester where partnership is proposed you see what a raw deal we have in West Yorkshire.
Bus stop and timetable info is awful, a jumble of numbers which are often out of date or wrong. In Nottingham the bus publicity is wonderful.
Having just been walking in Norfolk I used King’s Lynn and Wisbech bus stations. King’s Lynn has real-time and printed timetables at each stop and a information office, well used by Lynx buses and ignored by First and Stagecoach, but that is not Norfolk’s fault. Wisbech in Cambridgeshire has not printed info and just one real time screen well away for the bus stops. You would only find it by chance.
What is very clear is that all the administrations who know how to do buses and support passengers in a successful way want partnerships and all those who can hardly do anything right want franchising! It is as though the desire for franchising is a proudly worn badge of failure!
LikeLike
Barry street is a joke, when trying to catch a bus complete mayhem and dangerous for the older generations and infirm. What has happened to our once beautiful and prosperous city. 😢
LikeLike
In the midst of Bradford’s surviving elegant Victorian buildings, we have the crumbling 1980s-build bus station.
Says it all, really…..
LikeLike
What a complete and utter mess! Public bodies are usually rubbish at maintaining assets. However you have to factor in the halving of local government finances by central government. This is what you get with a low tax small state economy. Then there are the many variations across local authorities regarding competence, bus friendliness, car worship etc. Sometimes it’s just down to the people in charge.
The UK is indeed a failing state. We seem to be stuck between the US (worse) and several European countries who are superb at public transport and urban planning.
Maybe without a central interchange, Bradford would be better off with a cross city service pattern for the city routes?
Peter Brown
LikeLike
We used to have many cross city services but they have had to be split up as the congestion makes them impossible to run. I can see the new road set up killing off many bus routes with a consequential accereration of retail closures
As an incomer from Harrogate, I like Bradford, but the council seems to have a death wish on Bradford’s behalf.
LikeLike
Taking buses out of Bradford City centre “to avoid delay hotspots” is about as daft as terminating trains at Levenshulme and Ardwick to avoid “congestion delays” at Manchester Piccadilly.
Traffic levels in the area may be as bad , but I have never encountered serious problems in the City centre itself, always admiring the spot-on departure times when the Interchange was open. Pushing buses to the perimeter has never worked anywhere else, and certainly won’t work here.
Terence Uden
LikeLike
Roger, I had to swap from train to a bus at Bradford Interchange a couple of weeks ago and the situation is indeed chaotic. Thank you for highlighting it.
But… I can see no simple resolution to this. There are two stations in Bradford, the other being Forster Square to the north. Both serve lines to Leeds, but there is no connecting lines between the two. Creating that link would add enormous transport flexibility to West Yorkshire and Bradford in particular. One station could replace two, with a bus station adjoining to create a superb transport interchange for the city. A very few years ago, demolition work in central Bradford left a clear path between the two. All pleas to create the link were ignored, and a new court, shopping centres and car parks now fill that gap. The distance from station to station is about 700m. Northern Powerhouse Rail have now announced an initiative to build a new “city centre” through station to replace the Interchange. Trouble is, it’s even further away from the city centre – 550m further – and the “through” bit only means that it won’t involve a reversal, as getting in and out of the Interchange now does. It will still not link to Forster Square. The plans are also very sketchy on bus/rail interchange detail.
I don’t think that the blame for Bradford’s current transport woes can fairly be laid at the door of the Mayor, or indeed the WYCA in general. This is a situation that has developed for decades because of myopic Bradford city planning, and now Northern Powerhouse Rail are trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. They will fail.
Eden Blyth
LikeLike
Maybe through buses might help the situation, if properly planned. Somehow if Bradford Corporation had retained its Trolleybuses, and BR its rather majestic central rail station things at least could not be accused of going downhill. I always found WYPTE publicity to be unintelligble even in the “Metro” days.
“expected 50 year life” is buzzword bingo for anything that is failing down due to lack of maintenance, or is justification for some (unneccesary) “regeneration”.
Perhaps if someone had made sure HS2 had been built from the North going south first.
LikeLike
I have just read that the Council has received over£7mbfrom it’s Clean Air Zone and now boasts of the cleanest taxi fleet in the country. What a shame bus users are so unimportant that the council does not maintain existing facilities or invest in suitable requirements.
Gareth Cheeseman
LikeLike
I dread to think of what Alderman Foodbotham would have made of all this. He must be turning in his granite mausoleum on Cleckheaton Moor.
Michael Wadman
LikeLike