Bradford Forster Square Railway Station
| Bradford Forster Square | |
|---|---|
 View from Hamm Strasse
|
|
| Data | |
| Platform tracks | 3 |
| opening | 1846 (built) 1853 (rebuilt) 1890 (rebuilt) 1990 (relocated) |
| location | |
| City / municipality | City of Bradford |
| Place / district | Bradford |
| Metropolitan Borough | City of Bradford |
| Part of the country | England |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 53 ° 47 '49 " N , 1 ° 45' 11" W |
| Railway lines | |
|
Leeds – Morecambe Railway |
|
| List of train stations in the United Kingdom | |
Bradford Forster Square is a train station in Bradford , West Yorkshire , England on the electrified Airedale Line to Skipton , the Wharfedale Line to Ilkley and the Leeds-Bradford Line to Leeds . Mainly local trains of class 333 run here .
The city's other major train station is Bradford Interchange , about a ten-minute walk from Forster Square. From there trains on the Caldervale Line to Leeds, Halifax , Huddersfield , Manchester Victoria , Blackpool and London King's Cross . Bradford Interchange is on the other side of the city center and higher than Forster Square. The completion of the Bradford Crossrail project to connect the two stations is currently considered unlikely.
history
The first railway line to Bradford was opened by the Leeds and Bradford Railway on July 1, 1846. It reached the city from the north, following the valley of the Bradford Beck, from Shipley and ended at a train station in Kirkgate, opposite the end of Market Street. Trains ran hourly to Leeds Wellington Station , with non-stop connections to London Euston via Derby and Rugby .
This first station had an imposing classical reception building based on a design by William Andrews.
In 1853, the Midland Railway had acquired the Leeds and Bradford Railway and rebuilt the station. The new station building was larger but appeared to be of less architectural interest than the old one.
In 1890 the station was renewed again. The architect Charles Trubshaw , who worked for the Midland Railway , designed a large complex of buildings that included passenger and goods handling and the Midland Hotel . The station had six platforms and a glazed ribbed roof. In the 1960s this roof was dismantled and replaced by functional platform roofs. The station was also used by the North Eastern Railway . Around the time of this renovation, the station was called Market Street Station , but this is not reflected in locally issued maps and address books (see name below).
In 1906 Foster Square was built directly southeast of the station , but the name was not used for the station until 1924.
In March 1963, the Beeching Report advised the closure of all rail lines serving Wharfedale and the discontinuation of several other connections from Bradford Forster Square. In 1965, numerous train stations closed and public transport to Leeds was discontinued. For some routes, however, the decision was postponed and the trains continued. In 1972 Bradford Corporation (now City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council) and several other local government bodies in the area decided to subsidize the Wharfedale Line and the Airedale Line. The lines remained in service and a number of train stations were reopened in the following years. Since April 1974 the new West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (now West Yorkshire Metro ) has been responsible for these services.
Forster Square station was shortened in 1990 when a new station was built west of the old one. The latter has three modern platforms, two of which (platforms 1 and 2) can accommodate intercity trains. The old station was later demolished to make way for a shopping center called Broadgate . Due to the recession in the early 1990s, the project was abandoned and the site was used as a parking lot. A new tax office was later built there. Parts of the arcades that formed the front of the station from 1890 and the Midland Hotel have been preserved. With the renewal of the city center and the demolition of Foster House in 2005, these became more noticeable, but how long they will remain visible is uncertain as construction work continues.
The line to Forster Square was electrified in 1994 together with the Airedale Line and the Wharfedale Line, so that continuous electric train traffic to London is possible via the also newly electrified East Coast Main Line .
Over time, operations changed as follows:
| from | to | operated by | next station |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1846 | 1851 | Leeds and Bradford | Manningham |
| 1851 | 1923 | Midland | Manningham |
| 1923 | 1948 | LMS | Manningham |
| 1948 | 1965 | British Railways / British Rail | Manningham |
| 1965 | 1987 | West Yorkshire Metro (trains operated by British Rail) | Shipley |
| 1987 | 1997 | West Yorkshire Metro (trains operated by British Rail) | Frizinghall |
| 1997 | 2001 | West Yorkshire Metro (trains operated by Northern Spirit ) | Frizinghall |
| 2001 | 2004 | West Yorkshire Metro (trains operated by Arriva Trains Northern ) | Frizinghall |
| 2004 | today | West Yorkshire Metro (trains operated by Northern Rail ) | Frizinghall |
designation
There is disagreement about the names of the station and the order in which they are used. Most publications agree that it was once called Market Street , but not when exactly it was:
- According to Alan Whitaker, the name Market Street was in use from the 1890-1924 remodeling.
- According to Tony Dewick, p. 42, the name went out of use before 1901.
Contemporary sources apparently do not use this name at all. In the Bradford Post Office Directory the terminus of the Midland Railway is named as "Station, bottom of Kirkgate" (1856, 1863, 1898) or "Station, Forster Square" (1916, 1927). It wasn't until 1928 that an address book used the name "Forster Square Station". In contrast, the address books from 1879/1880 consistently show the city's other train station as "Exchange Station, Drake St". Neither the Dixon & Hindle map nor that of the Ordnance Survey shows any other name than Midland Station , although the latter names Bradford Exchange Station as the Exchange Station .
Probably the first station was simply called Bradford , at least until 1850 when the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway opened in Drake Street . After that it was called Midland Station . The interim name Bradford Market Street was apparently unofficial. Only Bradshaw's Railway Guide from July 1922 gives Market Street and the distance to Exchange Station .
Train traffic
Bradford Forster Square trains are operated by Northern and London North Eastern Railway . Northern operates most of the trains, namely those to Leeds (on the Leeds-Bradford Line ), Skipton (on the Airedale Line ) and Ilkley (on the Wharfedale Line ). Trains on each of these lines run every 30 minutes Monday through Saturday. There are hourly trains in the evenings on weekdays and Saturdays to Skipton and Ilkley, but no through trains to Leeds; instead there is a shuttle service between Bradford and Shipley with connections to trains between Skipton and Leeds. Skipton also has long-distance trains to Morecambe and Carlisle ; Direct connections to these destinations will be established when the route to Leeds is closed due to construction work.
On Sundays, trains between Bradford and Leeds run every hour until closing time and every two hours to Skipton and Ilkley.
Outside of rush hour, most trains use platforms 1 (towards Skipton) and 2 (towards Leeds and Ilkley). Platform 3 is mainly used during rush hour on weekdays and in the evening. A reserve train is usually parked there every working day from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
London North Eastern Railway (LNER) operate a pair of trains daily to London King's Cross via Leeds and the East Coast Main Line .
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Alan Whitaker, Brian Myland: Railway Memories No. 4: Bradford . Bellcode Books ,, ISBN 1-871233-03-8 .
- ^ A b George Sheeran: Railway Buildings of West Yorkshire, 1812-1920 . Keele, Staffs: Ryburn Publishing, 1994, ISBN 1-85331-100-6 .
- ^ A b Dixon & Hindle 1871 Plan of the Town of Bradford , ed. Elvira Willmott 1987, as The Ryburn Map of Victorian Bradford , Keele, Staffs: Ryburn Publishing. ISBN 1-85331-004-2
- ^ A b Ordnance Survey 1906 Bradford (Sheet 216.08), pub. Alan Godfrey Maps 1989. ISBN 0-85054-281-2
- ^ Dewick, Tony (2002) Complete Atlas of Railway Station Names Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0-7110-2798-6
literature
- Firth, Gary (1997) A History of Bradford Phillimore. ISBN 1-86077-057-6
- Smith, FW & Bairstow, Martin The Otley and Ilkley Joint Railway Martin Bairstow. ISBN 1-871944-06-6 .
