City to get more daily trains to London

Train operator LNER will more than triple its services between Bradford and London from May.

The new timetable will see an increase from the current two to seven services operating in each direction from Monday to Saturday, with six on Sunday.

It comes as work to create an extra platform at Forster Square Station to allow for the increase in services nears completion.

Last year the government announced a £24m investment in the station to boost rail services during its City of Culture year.

• New £24m platform to boost city train services

Bradford's poor rail links have long been seen as a factor holding the city back from reaching its full potential.

The new platform is being built on the side of the station closest to Forster Square retail park.

An update on the work and introduction of the new LNER services will be given to members of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority's (WYCA) transport committee later.

A report says: "At the time of writing, work on the new platform at Bradford Forster Square remained broadly on schedule for completion by January 2025, and the Department for Transport have now confirmed the formal go-ahead for the additional LNER Bradford-London services to start from the May 2025 timetable change."

The meeting will also hear that negotiations are continuing to try to return services between Bradford and Ilkley and Skipton to their previous levels after being cut in 2023, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

In May of that year, Northern Rail announced it would be cutting the number of services on the route from two per hour to one for a large stretch of the day.

Since then there have been calls to restore the more regular service.

The report adds: "The reversal of the reduction of Bradford's weekday daytime train services to Ilkley and Skipton from two per hour to one remains a high priority for the Combined Authority."

The report says that following a meeting in November with the Department for Transport and Rail North Partnership officials, "a pathway to reinstating the lost services was identified".

It adds: "The Combined Authority is working with Bradford Council, Northern and Transport for the North to build a strong, evidence-backed case, aiming for inclusion of the 'lost' services in Northern's 2025-26 Annual Business Plan."

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