Bradford Interchange revamp to go ahead despite planned move

A £13.2m refurbishment of a railway station is to go ahead, despite plans to replace it.

Bradford Interchange will get a new entrance and other improvements to bring it "up to standard", the city council said.

The NCP car park on Hall Ings would be demolished to create a new pedestrianised entrance.

The council plans to move services to a new station as part of a proposed northern high-speed rail link.

If approved, the new station would open in 2030.

The £13.2m Interchange project is one of a number of schemes across West Yorkshire which are part of a government devolution deal, which saw the county get an elected mayor and funding and control over local transport.

Bradford Council said that under the terms of the government's Transforming Cities Fund the work had to be completed by March 2023, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The local authority had bought the NCP car park in 2017 for £4.15m.

But it announced earlier this year that it had earmarked the St James' Market site off Wakefield Road as the preferred location for a Bradford stop on the proposed Northern Powerhouse Rail high-speed line.

Bradford Council said the new entrance to Bradford Interchange and maintenance work being done at the bus station would "bring the Interchange up to standard until Northern Powerhouse Railway Station proposals can be finalised and a decision on the future of site can be made".

If the new station was given the go ahead it would leave the Interchange as a "very valuable" development site in the city centre, a spokesperson added.

A consultation on proposals for the Interchange revamp will take place in July.

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