BRADFORD INTERCHANGE

'Bradford Interchange' is a combined railway, coach and bus station in Bradford, England.

Contents

Services

Bus and coach

Rail

Layout and facilities

Ticket offices

History

Ongoing improvements

Other interchanges

External links

Services

Bus and coach

Local bus services run to many destinations, including Leeds, Halifax, Keighley, Ilkley, Otley, Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Wakefield, as well as services wholly within Bradford. Most services are operated by the First Group. Other operators include Arriva, Keighley and District and Halifax Joint Committee.
Coaches operated by National Express run from their own bays in the bus station to many town and cities within the UK.
The bus station is managed by Metro.

Rail

Bradford Interchange is on the Caldervale Line and is one of the two railway stations serving the city of Bradford. The other station is Forster Square, ten minutes walk away.
During Monday to Saturday daytimes, services run every 15 minutes between the interchange and Leeds, and hourly onwards to York and Selby respectively. On 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[1].
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.

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, a cafe and sandwich shop and a fast food outlet on the train platforms, where hot drinks are also available. 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 travellers, 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.

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 in the central concourse. The train ticket office by the pedestrian entrance to the train platforms.

History

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.

Ongoing improvements

The railway station has not seen significant improvements in many years. In sharp contrast, the bus platforms were once more plentiful, however, sale of half of the land owned by Metro resulted in the building of a call centre for Abbey bank in the mid 1990s.
Metro are currently considering improvements to the bus and rail platforms, including better access between facilities and pedestrian access between the bus concourse and the rail platforms, to save walking down and up the escalators [2]

Other interchanges

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 city's main bus station.

External links

★ Bradford Exchange station

★ Bradford Interchange Bus Station - Metro (WYPTE) website

★ UK Bus Journey Planner

★ Keighley and District

★ Halifax Joint Committee

★ First Bradford

★ Arriva