Tuesday 2nd December 2025
We’re nearly at the end of this year’s fortnightly series, but have no fear the 25th place to be featured in a couple of weeks is a rather special one and next year I’m extending the series to cover more two station places thanks to all the suggestions readers have kindly sent in.
But for now, I had to include Bradford in the current round of visits as not only has it been the UK City of Culture this year but has also been described as having “the worst rail connections of any major UK city” due to it being “the only major northern city not on a main line or directly connected to the fast TransPennine routes”.
It’s why there’s been a long standing campaign by local politicians and stakeholders for a new station for the city which would “provide Bradford with a 10-minute journey time to Huddersfield, 12 minutes to Leeds and 30 minutes to Manchester”.
You can sense the frustration in Bradford’s plight. In late 2023 the then Conservative Government announced more than £2 billion to develop a new railway station for the city. This followed a similar announcement by Bradford Council in 2021. But like everything to do with Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) it’s been off and on with subsequent announcements by the current Government noticeably silent on both NPR and Bradford’s new station.
It’s therefore more productive than usual in these reviews to look at the current situation to gain an understanding of why Bradford feels cut off from the rail network.
The city’s two stations are tantalisingly close – one (Bradford Forster Square) with tracks coming from the north, and the other (Bradford Interchange) with tracks approaching from the south. If only the original railway pioneers in the mid to late 1880s had cooperated to extend their tracks a little further on to create one large centrally located station.
But it wasn’t to be.
Bradford Forster Square came first, in 1846, with the line approaching the terminus from Shipley in the north. The station currently sees four trains an hour run by Northern with two continuing half hourly to Leeds, one to Ilkley and one to Skipton. These have recently been joined by a two-hourly service from LNER via Leeds and the East Coast Mainline to London King’s Cross taking two hours and 45 minutes.
The city’s other station was originally called Bradford Exchange opening slightly later in 1867 providing links to Leeds and beyond in the east and Halifax and beyond in the west. The station has been reconfigured a number of times and in its heyday had 10 platforms. However the last rebuild to a site slightly south of the original location (now the Law Courts – see map) in the 1970s saw a substantial bus station built alongside with the station being renamed Bradford Interchange in 1983.
Nowadays Northern provides five trains an hour utilising the Y shape access for through services on the Calder Valley line. Eastbound from Bradford Interchange, all trains serve Leeds where three terminate (having come from Manchester Victoria with two of those starting in Chester and Wigan Wallgate (stopper)), a fourth continuing to York (from Blackpool North via Preston) and a fifth continuing to Hull (having commenced in Halifax). In the westbound direction the comparable departures are to Manchester Victoria, Chester and Wigan Wallgate as well as Blackpool North via Preston and the one hourly journey terminating in Halifax, from Hull.
Grand Central began using Bradford Interchange for its direct trains to London in May 2010 and now runs four trains a day in each direction (06:59, 07:57, 10:22 and 14:49 from Bradford on weekdays returning from King’s Cross at 10:57, 14:56, 16:27 and 19:48 with new times from this weekend’s timetable change).
The bus station part of the Interchange was famously closed at short notice in January last year due to structural issues but reopened again in January this year.
It’s an extensive structure with numerous departure bays around a central concourse…
…which dwarfs the adjacent station with its four platforms and a five gate gateline…
…leading to a landing…
… where steps, escalator and lift take passengers down to the ground floor…
… where more stairs, escalator and lift…
… take passengers up to the concourse for bus and coach departures.
It’s a very up and down Interchange.
There’s also a side entrance/exit to/from the rail station concourse on to Bridge Street from a steep slope alongside the outside of the building.
There’s no shortage of room in the ticket office and Travel Centre which has five positions, two of which are behind a screen and three not.
Only one of each was staffed when I called in recently and as you can see they weren’t doing much custom.
There are some goldfish to keep the staff company…
… and there’s also a book library.
Outside there are five ticket machines from Northern making for more options for passengers to buy tickets.
Beyond the gateline is a small enclosed waiting room …
… and two island platforms for the four departure tracks.
Around half the platform length is under cover where seats are provided…
… and on platforms 3/4 there’s also a small enclosed waiting area.
It’s not particularly inviting, not helped by the dual carriageway A647 Croft Road passing over with its fairly ugly features.
It’s about a 10-12 minute walk to Bradford Forster Square…
… much of which is through what is now a massive pedestrianised central zone in the city.
Where once there was traffic and buses aplenty…
…now the city centre is exclusively for pedestrians with not a bus in sight.
Forster Square station is also hidden away with no main street frontage…
… although there is vehicle access via Valley Road.
There’s a ticket office and waiting room…
… and another small concourse with a small shop called, appropriately enough, a ‘Trading Unit’…
and a five gate gateline.
… as well as some cycle stands under cover.
Following the official opening of new Platform 0 in May of this year…
… Forster Square can now boast it has four platforms with all but Platform 1 capable of taking 10 coach trains.
This extra platform helped facilitate LNER’s new regular departures for King’s Cross which acts as a rival to Grand Central from Bradford Interchange for direct London bound trains, especially as the latter have extended travel times.
Aside from LNER appearances, Bradford Forster Square is very much a Northern run station.
And that’s it for Bradford. The 25th and final Place With Two Stations to feature in this year’s series will appear on 13th December but there’ll be more to come next year.
Roger French
Did you catch the 23 previous blogs in this series? 1: Hertford; 2: Canterbury. 3: Wigan, 4 Dorchester, 5 Windsor, 6 Wakefield, 7 Reddish, 8 Yeovil, 9 Newark-on-Trent, 10 New Mills, 11 Tyndrum, 12 St Albans, 13 Falkirk, 14 Catford, 15 Helensburgh, 16 Gainsborough, 17 Edenbridge, 18 Bicester, 19 Worcester, 20 Epsom and Ewell, 21 Wrexham, 22 Runcorn, 23 Farnborough.
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
There was a Bradford Adolphus Street railway station station
Leeds, Bradford and Halifax Junction Railway (later absorbed by the Great Northern) arrived in Bradford they initially built a terminus at Adolphus Street. It was poorly situated, and so a branch line was built from east of the terminus that looped south and joined the existing Lancashire and Yorkshire line at Mill Lane junction. That allowed LB & HJ services to enter Bradford Exchange station.
The station was closed to passengers in 1867 but remained in use for parcels and freight traffic until 1972.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Roger neatly summarises the service pattern at Interchange, with trains from far and wide reversing before continuing on to their final destinations. As such, it highlights the pointlessness of the previous government’s proposal to electrify the line from Leeds, as a “benefit” arising from the cancellation of HS2 north of Staffordshire.
Paul B
LikeLike
Forster Square Station used to extend closer to the city centre right up to the Midland Hotel where a covered walkway took first class passengers straight in to the hotel. This passageway was still there in 2014 when I stayed there but the hotel has been sold in recent times to Britannia Hotels who are less upmarket so things may have changed.
Nigel Turner
LikeLiked by 1 person
A recent YouTube video revealed that the wonderfully preserved walkway at the rear of the hotel is still existent, even under the ownership of Britannia. See link to the video here, and the walkway can be seen from 4:00 minutes in the video. https://youtu.be/VMjoIiTs1sk?si=Adse4sgLMJ7jnpu-
LikeLike
Both Forster Square (formerly Market Street) (until 1990) and Exchange (rebuilt as, or replaced by Interchange) (until 1973) were originally much closer to the actual city centre.
There is a history of Bradford’s through railway schemes on line at https://www.bradfordhistorical.org.uk/allchange.html – the most notable of these was the Midland Railway’s West Riding Lines and Bradford Through Lines proposals, which included a tunnel under, or a viaduct over the centre. Originally proposed in 1894, they were authorised, and partly constructed, before finally being abandoned just after the Great War.
LikeLike
Absolutely loved this series. Am guessing Stourbridge may be the special 25th place but would also love it to be St Budeaux.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps Roger could extend the series with stations that have two names (are there any remaining?)
LikeLike
Bradford Forster Square has something in common with Leeds, Newport (South Wales), Wigan Wallgate, Southend Victoria and most South Western Railway stations with gatelines except Waterloo and Portsmouth Harbour.
You can put an All Line Rail Rover in the one of the gates and they open! They also as Roger notes have a constricted gateline in many cases.
It does what it says on the tin.
As for Bradford Interchange, usually error code 115. TOC season/rover ceased to be valid after date shown.
“That’s not todays date” … “I know it isn’t, it’s in the future when it expires” ….. “We don’t see many of them” ….. “It’s a hidden gem” … “Righto, mate”
John Nicholas
LikeLike
Back in BR days, APTIS-issued rovers were on a special, distinctive blank (card) which made them obvious to ticket inspection staff, as indeed were many other tickets. Many staff could identify ticket types at a glance from those blanks and check tickets much more rapidly than is the case now.
One of the ‘benefits’ of modernisation as been every type of paper ticket being issued on an orange blank instead. QR codes are of course replacing them but the readers aren’t actually all that fast.
LikeLike
I think I once waved an orange raffle ticket in the general direction of gateline staff ( I had a zone pass but was going outside it and the extension ticket wouldnt work the gate so I had the right fare but as I needed to show ticket on train it was easier with luggage just to show in the station any old bit of paper.
JBC Prestatyn
LikeLike
Roger,A very enjoyable series and good to hear that you propose continuing this next year.May I suggest, if it hasn’t already, Walthamstow Central and Walthamstow Queen’s Road.Yours,Barry Coppock
LikeLike
I agree that it’s been a very enjoyable series.
Can we have Bromley North and Bromley South in next year’s series please?
LikeLike
Whilst I did have a goldfish as a child, and it managed to survive to its natural death despite the later acquisition of a cat, I found goldfish aplenty on a Capitalcard jaunt on 02/04/1985. Boarding Unit 504 of Class 305 I decided to walk through the gangway connections between carriages. Lo and behold the luggage compartment of MBS E61413 was stacked completely with cases of goldfish from Prestopets of North Weald to a whole host of pet shops in the west of England and a “Showman” c/o Paignton Station. The consignment was loaded at Harlow Town Station and my trip was from Tottenham Hale to London Liverpool Street. Carrying a four-pack of lager home for my evening refreshments is quite a load between my Rydens Road bus stop and home in Lindley Road – the weight of the water in that consignment of goldfish must have been staggering and a test for the “poor” bogie immediately below bearing this load. For twelve years I was the Tax Agent for a pet shop, initially in Manningtree and then at Capel St Mary and indeed one of my client’s suppliers was Prestopets of North Weald. Goldfish ownership, goldfish on a train and indeed a client of mine supplied by Prestopets of North Weald.
LikeLike
stretching a point, but how about Newcastle? Although tbf, Manors doesn’t have Newcastle in its name – arguably it should, a massively under utilised station, but horrendous access.
LikeLike
I like the prospect of a Hull-Halifax service. It reminds me of the ancient prayer, ‘From Hull, Hell and Halifax, Good Lord deliver us’. I’m sure there could be a cheap joke about Northern Rail in there, but as my good friend Alex Hornby is now sorting it all out I shall behave.
LikeLike
Pedantically, the ancient thieves prayer: Hell is obvious, Hull had an infamously horrendous prison until the Victorian reformists got involved, and Halifax used a predecessor of the guillotine for executions well before the French revolutionaries went mad with it.
Northern’s problems are deep-seated and far beyond one man to sort out. Given that what is currently Northern will be split up when GBR takes its intended shape, I’m not sure the current Northern management can or will do much beyond what their predecessors have: wring their hands in public and make pronouncements about how they’re working hard to change everything but change very little in reality.
LikeLike
I think it may have been quite difficult, even back in 1867, to link the two stations as I think the City and the magnificent buildings always found in Northern cities, had developed considerably by then, thus providing quite an obstruction.
I don’t doubt “Planners” mean well and all spout the usual guff about the merits of pedestrianisation of city streets, but taking bus services away to fringes of any town or city is not successful. Bradford always seems much quieter these days to me, City of Culture or not, and many people, particularly in older age groups would be much happier having buses serving the stores and shops they wish to use.
Terence Uden
LikeLiked by 1 person
Buses and pedestrians do not make a happy mix. When I worked in London Buses safety team, around 30 years ago, the stats for Oxford Street were grim. Let’s not forget that each of those stats is – or was – a human being. Sadly those stats did include fatalities as well as serious injuries.
So there is a balance to be struck between reducing risk of death and injury, and enabling public transport to maintain convenient access to shopping areas. There may not be a single “perfect” solution.
Malc M
LikeLike
That’s in the days before people walking around with buds in their ears staring at their mobiles.
More than once I witnessed Oxford Circus used as a helicopter landing pad to enable a seriously injured casualty to be swiftly taken to hospital.
John Nicholas
LikeLike
Agreed. The bus stops on the revised route of the A2 Flyer into Bradford city centre all seem to be quite a walk away from the shopping areas, as does the Interchange bus station. Great if you’re fit & able, maybe not so much for the more elderly folks and those who are less able.
LikeLike
Is Marple on your list for next year? It has 2 stations (Marple and Rose Hill) both of whivh have very active Friends groups. Rose Hill is the terminus of a short branch, having narrowly survived Beeching when the rest of the line to Macclesfield closed, while Marple (like Reddish North which you featured previously) is served by Northern trains from Manchester to Sheffield.
LikeLike
Are you covering Whitehaven?
LikeLike
I’m struggling to see why Bradfordians are disappointed with their current train services.
5 TPH at Interchange and 4 TPH at Forster Sq. seems pretty good to me. Maybe the journey times could be improved on, but there are a wide range of destinations available, and with one change that range gets very much greater.
If the cost for a new station is to be £2billion (and probably north of that eventually) … then pausing plans just now sounds like a good call.
I haven’t been back to Bradford since late 2023 (when the building works were in full swing), but the pictures of the finished town centre look fabulous …. and the bus stops still won’t be more than 5 minutes or so from the shops.
A return visit is required in 2026 …..
LikeLike
The issue with Bradford is sour grapes because all of the money is spent on or in Leeds – the rival city.
Leeds is looking set to get light rail costing goodness knows what whilst Bradford gets fancy paving in the city centre! I understand the frustration, but you are right about the levels of service which many places would be jealous of.
If Roger wants a local day out what about East and West Croydon next year?
LikeLike
I thought the West Yorkshire light rail was going to kick off with a line between both Bradford and Leeds
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those train frequencies might seem quite decent for a small to medium-sized town. But for a city with a population of half a million and more?
As you say, journey times aren’t great. Nearly an hour to Manchester, just 30 miles away. Not much under an hour and a half to Sheffield, just over 30 miles away. More than an hour and a half to Manchester Airport, less than 40 miles distant.
Malc M
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bradford has some fabulous buildings and the city centre definitely feels better now, but it suffers from being in the shadow of Leeds. The desire for a 12 minute journey time complements the WY Mayor’s ambition for a Leeds-Bradford tram (or whatever we are meant to call them now). I’m not sure whether it is about getting Bradfordians to Leeds quicker or vice versa.
John
LikeLiked by 1 person
Are you going to include Guildford, with London Road (Guildford) as the second station?
LikeLike
the only major northern city not on a main line or directly connected to the fast TransPennine routes
May I Suggest then that someone moves Bradford to a Different Location ?
I cannot see that it is not connected to all main and further away places . and perhaps tunnelling through more geography might have got quicker travel times , at some great expense. Thankfully Shipley exists to turn many trains in differing directions which is really helpful in the North of England
Did the Line through Otley come closer to the Bradford City area ?
As it is the city basically has the kind of end of line stations one would expect to find in some coastal resort and we have previously looked at the older stations which were of a design that matched the economic performance of the City when built. The city has only itself to blame for not looking for better opportunities much earlier
JBC Prestatyn
LikeLike
the otley line did not come closer. In the Bradford direction, trains from this now closed line joined the remaining railway near Menston and thence via Shipley to Bradford Foster Square.
LikeLike
Thanks, would have provided another route to Leeds and connecting Otley to Bradford which is not straightforward , and would it not have been a little useful for the Leeds-Bradford Airport
(I used to drive around the area and basically would get lost on the roads ending up at one cross roads from every direction trying to work out best routes to some places from Horsforth to Shipley.
JBC Prestatyn
LikeLike
I doubt many of the people who developed Bradford are still living there now. Similarity, I doubt many of the people living in Bradford today were there when the city was being built. So, who’s to blame?
Blaming Bradford for its relatively poor rail connections misses a key point. Are poor transport connections holding Bradford back, making it more difficult not only for the city’s residents to travel out, but also for visitors to get in? Blaming Bradford for its position does nothing to address that, nothing to enable it to better fulfil its potential, nor to enable it to make a bigger contribution to the regional and national economy. Improving the connectivity into and out of the city, on the other hand, may unlock more of Bradford’s potential.
Malc M
LikeLiked by 1 person
Travel within Bradford used to be by Trolleybus, which I think was ceased before the creation of the WYPTE. Maybe that should have continued with electric being more powerful at coping with the hills, and by 1972 though meant replacements were larger rear engine buses rather than something like Leyland PD2s a decade earlier other operators were using to eliminate their trolleybuses.
The present “plan” seems to be more that a station should be provided effectively for a cross line Leeds-Bradford-Halifax-Manchester (via Todmorden?) But that wont of itself speed up journey times from Bradford even with the reversing time penalty at Bradford in present arrangements (Just step back driver / crew changes could reduce that significantly for the local services – probably not worth it for East Coast/ Open Access operators).
As to Blame – maybe the DfT and a lack of ambition in Northern Rail timetabling and fleet cascading in the past. WYPTA does seem to have at least a “good enough” service in terms frequency and hours of operation.
I do miss the Megabus services though – most of which peeled off the Motorway at Morrisons bus stop on one of the hills out of town , with a local bus descent required of typical northern town arterial road to the rail station and town centre car park/s. Areas which these days get described as “Areas of Opportunity” but were hardly totally run down even if contribution to economic growth was relatively low.
JBC Prestatyn
LikeLike
I thought you were blaming Bradford for being in the wrong place/not using better opportunities earlier? But now it’s DfT/Northern Rail’s fault?
Throwing trolleybuses into the discussion misses the point. Trolleybuses provided connections within the city. I thought the point being made about Bradford was its relatively poor rail connections regionally and nationally, compared to other major cities in northern England?
Malc M
LikeLike
Well a national train might get you to Bradford Centre but less use if you live in Queensbury. In London I expect to get to most suburban places in about half hour ( Kingston an odd exception unless someone decides semi-fast trains should be supplied at some time (CR2 anyone ?))
Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, Manchester all can be timetable for non stop fast services – so that is a network decision. Sheffield more difficult to find a way through , I would not blame (or should I ?) the loss of the Woodhead route for tracks to Sheffield .
JBC Prestatyn
LikeLike
Great series of blogs – are you going to cover Burscough Bridge/Burscough Junction in the new year?
LikeLike
The campaign literature calls Bradford the newest city, a fatuous statement for one so designated in 1897. Roger’s pieces usually cover the toilet arrangements (bit of prostrate trouble?) but neither of these stations has that covered. Long ago while working in Bradford I recall that in the vicinity of Forster Square you could apparently drive in a loop with five right angles and get back to your starting point, which was very confusing before you realised that one of the arms had a distinct outward bend.
LikeLike
the literature says youngest city not newest city. This will be a reference to the average age of the city’s population.
LikeLike
Given the youth and Ethnic Profile then of the city I would imagine desire to travel is to Leeds, Halifax, Manchester (And the Map provided misses some of the other actual and potential links) , Sheffield (less so) Rotherham (maybe) , Rochdale , Leicester.
But actually the areas are fairly tight and dont have a day to day mass travel for those communities and it is notable there are not that many OTHER stations in the overall city region – those toward Shipley and lines from there in the main
JBC Prestatyn
LikeLike
This reminds me of bus route W9 in Highlands Village, Enfield (Roger’s original home area) where three left turns enable the bus to perform a clockwise loop
LikeLike
Prostrate men are common in Bradford and other northern towns and cities, particularly on Fridays. I’ve even seen one on a train (in another part of the country). I’m not sure if he adjusted his angle as the train changed direction.
🙂
LikeLike
Whoever still owns Southern , etc uplifts in services generally for the December 2024 timetable change, mostly minor with additional starting further back and some mid peaks enhancements but also new half hourly semi fasts on some great northern routes giving 15min approx headway from some statitions
One oddity.
Peterborough to London King’s Cross – Monday to Friday
Weekday peak Great Northern services between Peterborough and London King’s Cross, which call at Huntingdon, St Neots, Biggleswade and Stevenage, will remain at five services per morning and afternoon/evening.
The current 08:05 service from Peterborough will be brought forward to provide an earlier fast service, departing Peterborough at 05:43.
I assume this actually frees a path for something of another operator from further north ?
JBC Prestatyn
LikeLike
London Liverpool Street station will be closed for eight days while Network Rail continues to work to replace the ageing roof panels. Work within the Bishopsgate tunnel will also be taking place to undertake essential maintenance on this key structure on the approach to the London terminal.
Many services to/from London will terminate at or start from Stratford with connections to/from central London via the Elizabeth line and London Underground services.
On days when London Liverpool Street station is closed, ticket acceptance has been arranged on the Elizabeth Line and Central Line between Stratford and London Liverpool Street, on the Victoria Line between Tottenham Hale and King’s Cross St. Pancras, and on the Circle, Hammersmith & City Line, and Metropolitan Lines between King’s Cross St. Pancras and London Liverpool Street.
LikeLike
Will C2C be running Barking Stratford Fenchurch Street ?
Stratford Needs a Rebuild ( and argueably different routes and services that are DLR / Jubilee / Overground and the Hertfords )
Liverpool Street should be closed and the former Bishopsgate Goods re opened as a modern station development , the need to be close to London Bank has disappeared – thought this will affect change with the tube / EL
JBC Prestatyn
LikeLike
Another suggestion for a place with two stations is Ash which has two separate staions – Ash and Ash Vale – which are on different lines. Except on Sundays there aren’t direct trains between these stations. As Roger found on his recent visit to Farnborough there is a third station, North Camp, which is just in Ash on the Surrey – Hampshire border.
Thanks, Roger, for a great series. Perhaps you might consider another series – towns with three stations? Maidstone, Bromley, Southend, Watford, Exeter come to mind.
AlanN
LikeLike
IF HS2 had been committed to there could have been West Coast capacity for Bradford – Halifax- Huddersfield – Stalybridge-Stockport-London Euston Service – maybe half hourly with a Leeds-Huddersfield-Stockport-London service for good measure. I assume this would benefit Huddersfield more for journey time and also requires the full completion of the Trans Pennine Upgrade which is ongoing but funding tranches there seem to be announced in lumps rather than a full scoped commitment
JBC Prestatyn
LikeLike
I thought the broad general idea for this excellent series was that the two stations should not be on the same basic line, although there might well be a (possibly convoluted) link between them. Some of the suggestions now being made seem to ignore that idea.
I have my own suggestion. Following on from Roger’s trip to Belfast earlier in the year to review the new interchange terminus, why not visit Dublin and review its two principal stations – Heuston and Connolly? These two major termini will provide plenty of scope for a detailed analysis. There is a convoluted link between them requiring a reversal, but otherwise they are entirely separate.
Roger did do a trip to Guernsey a while ago – also outwith the UK!
The Irish rail network in both NI and the Republic is well worth exploring – perhaps Roger can extend his activities to cover it if he ever needs some fresh inspiration!!
Brian Musgrave.
LikeLike
nice idea
LikeLike
the only major northern city not on a main line or directly connected to the fast TransPennine route
That’ll be news to people in Sunderland.
LikeLike
From Sunday 1st February 2026, Central Connect will reduce the scope of its operations in the East Midlands
LikeLike
There is a slight error in the description of which services use the Interchange
There are only two services per hour Leeds to Manchester, one of which continues to Chester. The third service to Wigan runs via Brighouse and Dewsbury and therefore doesn’t serve Bradford
On top of this as rightly mentioned there is hourly York to Blackpool and Halifax to Hull services, and then the 5th service per hour is usually a Bradford to Huddersfield shuttle, but due to the works at Huddersfield it currently runs Bradford to Leeds the long way round via Brighouse and Dewsbury. This is generally a 150, the Hull are often 155s whereas everything else at the Interchange is generally 195s
At Forster Square the long time service pattern was 6 per hour, two each to Leeds, Skipton and Ilkley. Following post Covid cut backs the Skipton and Ilkley services are now just hourly at off peak times although there is continued pressure on Northern to reinstate the previous frequency
LikeLike
Croft Street not Croft Road
LikeLike