UK rail minister Huw Merriman has announced £24m in funding for Bradford Council toward the construction of a new platform at Forster Square Station.
The new platform aims to help alleviate congestion pressure and reduce delays on journeys departing the station, providing improved access to the city of Bradford.
The announcement comes as Bradford prepares to become the UK’s City of Culture in 2025, with the rail minister attending a meeting with local leaders and businesses to discuss plans to deliver a new government-funded station in the city.
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Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, leader of Bradford Council, said: “I’m really pleased we’ve been able to secure this new investment from government. It’s good to see they now recognise the value of Bradford being better connected to the entire Northern economy.”
The government’s £36bn Network North plan to improve local transport connections includes £2bn to provide a new station at Bradford and a new connection to improve journey times from the city to Manchester via Huddersfield.
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The meeting follows closely on the heels of £400,000 committed to Bradford in November 2023 to accelerate the council’s masterplans for the new station, which will see it become ‘the King’s Cross of the North’.
The announcement comes on top of £500m previously committed to upgrading and electrifying the railway between Bradford and Leeds and a further £2.5bn Network North pledge to support West Yorkshire’s mass transit system, which will improve connections between Leeds and Bradford, Huddersfield and Halifax.
Achievements and innovations in urban mobility will be celebrated at the third annual CiTTi Awards, which will be held on 26 November 2024 at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London. Nominations officially open in March 2024. Please visit www.cittiawards.co.uk to learn more about this unmissable event for the UK’s transportation sector.
