The second T&A article
https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/26655109.viaducts-needed-make-interchange-station/ has a few good lines.
NEW viaducts may need to be built in Bradford if the planned new rail station at Bradford Interchange is to be a through station, according to the Secretary of State for Transport.
Such as.. Council Leader saying:
“The station must be located in the city centre – tick.
Considering the council is now Reform led, since May, is this (killing of St James stn) due to political change - a rare outbreak of common sense? Previous leader was Labour and it had pushed for St James.
He also says:
“Bradford must be connected on a through line network rather than remaining a terminus, and an improved connection to Manchester via Huddersfield should be prioritised.”
so, another bit of realism rather than saying NPR must go through Bradford. (The prior calls for NPR to go through Bradford made as much sense as insisting the Channel Tunnel came via Bradford - although that said, NPR western plan isn't exactly straight line from Liverpool to Manchester!)
The WY Mayor (Brabin) said:
“For me what matters is that a 1970s station is being replaced by a station we can be proud of. I want to see it become a Kings Cross style station with the regeneration that comes with it.”
that's right, we'll be seeing Google relocate it's HQ to Bradford, just you wait and see!
“We don’t want it where people miss a train and have to wait an hour, we want people to have a tap in and go railway service.
oh, like the current railway then!
“But compared to where we were under the previous Conservative Government, we’ve got over £1B of money allocated to spend in the next few years on the Northern Powerhouse Rail programme, the previous Government knocked their plans up on the back of a fag packet really – they weren’t going to stand the test of time.
That's right, the last lot didn't spend anything (except for £100bn on HS2..., cue what did the Romans ever do for us) - were they supposed to spend everything everywhere all at once.? We're 6 years on now, so why did this govt wait 2 years to announce something .. ?
.. wrapping up Alexander said:
“For too long places like Bradford have been paid lip service at best and written off at worst.”
It's a pretty damning indictment of Bradford today that she had to say that sentence.
