Govt pledges cash for Shipley rail depot
A further element of the £3.9bn Transpennine Route Upgrade programme will come with a £100m TrainCare centre.
The project comes as a further boost to Bradford, for so long a neglected corner of the regional transport network.
January saw £24m committed towards a new platform at Forster Square station, while in November rail minister Huw Merriman – who has visted Bradford four times in recent months – released £400,000 to accelerate masterplanning for a new station.
The Department for Transport said that the Shipley TrainCare Centre will provide extra resilience to the North of England’s rail network.
As a whole the TRU project aims to transform journeys between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York, creating quicker journey times and reduced carbon emissions.
Rob Warnes, strategic development director for Northern, said: “We’re delighted to announce this investment in our brand new TrainCare Centre for Shipley. As the future home for most of our electric train fleets for West Yorkshire, the new site will bring a wealth of highly-skilled jobs into the region, as well as providing resilience for our network across the North.
“It will play a key part in helping us to deliver our plans for the Transpennine Route Upgrade and beyond.”
Bradford’s proposed new station was announced as part of the Network North plan to improve local transport, made possible by reallocated HS2 funding. This will support regeneration efforts in the UK’s seventh-largest city while facilitating a new rail connection to Manchester via Huddersfield.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, leader of Bradford Council, said: “We welcome this major investment in Shipley, which is another vote of confidence in the district from industry and further positions Bradford as a great place to do business.
“The new depot will be an important part of operating rail in the north of England, increasing service reliability for rail service users. A new state-of-the-art facility such as this is one of the many tangible improvements to the rail network we are supporting, delivering greener, more accessible trains across the north.
“Increasing employment opportunities and developing skills through regeneration are key priorities for the Council, so it’s great to hear that local jobs will be created to facilitate this project in the immediate term, as well as 92 permanent skilled posts being created in the longer term.”
Under initial plans for the first phase of West Yorkshire’s mass transit system, Bradford’s stations would be joined by one of the network’s first two lines, which would also connect the city to Leeds.
