Halifax redevelopment: could there be opportunities to improve or expand the station?

[61653 HTAFC]

The simple answer to all this is to join together the existing Sheffield-Huddersfield service with the Huddersfield-Bradford service.
Through trains connecting Halifax and Sheffield at no extra operating cost, no additional paths required in total, and no millions spent on curves at Wortley and West Horbury.

I there's any money available to be spent on curves perhaps it could be spent on the existing Horbury Junction. Last time I looked Leeds-Sheffield via Barnsley trains were crawling through at something like 20mph

A quick look at the track layout at Huddersfield will show that doing so would be anything but simple.

Whilst those moves are technically possible with the current layout, it requires platform 4 to be kept clear which there isn't capacity for. The single-track sections South of Huddersfield are also a constraint which would mean even a slight delay at Halifax would junk the timetable for anything passing Huddersfield.

Linking the Brighouse and Penistone services across Huddersfield seems to be the new "Cross-Bradford Link" suggestion, perhaps because of nostalgia for a link that used to exist- though even then it was for operational convenience rather than massive demand for Halifax people to get to Brockholes.

 

[Grumpy]

A quick look at the track layout at Huddersfield will show that doing so would be anything but simple.

Whilst those moves are technically possible with the current layout, it requires platform 4 to be kept clear which there isn't capacity for. The single-track sections South of Huddersfield are also a constraint which would mean even a slight delay at Halifax would junk the timetable for anything passing Huddersfield.

Linking the Brighouse and Penistone services across Huddersfield seems to be the new "Cross-Bradford Link" suggestion, perhaps because of nostalgia for a link that used to exist- though even then it was for operational convenience rather than massive demand for Halifax people to get to Brockholes.

Apart from turning round the Manchester-Huddersfield stoppers, which sit in the platform for 13 minutes or so per hour, platform 4 is unoccupied other than turning round the hourly Bradford service(which would simply become part of the through trains). Difficult to see how that can be described as having no capacity.
And as for "nostalgia for a link that used to exist" you can use that line for half the threads on these forums