Planned West Yorks Metro and Queensbury tunnel

[cphilb]

I read with interest about the new plans for the West Yorkshire Metro. While there are no doubt plenty of thoughts about the first 2 planned lines in Leeds and Bradford and even for the third line to Kirklees, I am turning my attention to the planned and mentioned Bradford - Halifax and beyond line. I am not quite sure what the plans for this projected route are and indeed, it probably hasn't been decided if this line will be via rail or bus, but either way, I ask myself whether the old Queensbury rail tunnel be brought back to life and used as part of the route be that by bus or rail. I remember walking through the tunnel as a small boy with my grandfather just after trains had stopped using it. I appreciate that the tunnel is in a state of bad repair and would need many milllions spending on it to make it safe and suitable as a mass transit corridor but I think this would be far cheaper than trying to get a new route over Queensbury and into Halifax from Bradford. Sustrans are promoting it as a future cycleway so there is some hope of the tunnel being saved. In Halifax, the route could go under Northbridge where I believe there would still be room to take it towards Halifax station - either on street or on a segregated way. I am sure that there are plenty of reasons for this not to happen and no doubt people will list them here but in my uninformed opinion, could this be a solution?

 

[stevieinselby]

The biggest reason not to use the Queensbury tunnel is that then the route wouldn't serve Queensbury – which, with a population of 10,000, definitely merits inclusion into the network if you're running it out that way – unless you're going to build an underground station and excavate access from the town centre down to the tunnel level. The old triangular station site would be of no use, it's too far out from the town. Plus there's not much of the old route into Bradford or Halifax that is still available and hasn't been built over. If you're running trams then better to just run them along A647 with appropriate priority and traffic management measures where possible to minimise delays.

 

[Halifaxlad]

It might just be me but it transpites that Highways England have beeb refurbishing a few of the old road bridges that used to take the road over the railway between Halifax and Queensbury tunnel. Despite not being used for anything.

I wonder if this is connected to the future use of the tunnel or this mass transit system.

 

[Bantamzen]

It might just be me but it transpites that Highways England have beeb refurbishing a few of the old road bridges that used to take the road over the railway between Halifax and Queensbury tunnel. Despite not being used for anything.

I wonder if this is connected to the future use of the tunnel or this mass transit system.

I doubt it, because when you head towards Clayton, Great Horton & Bradford you'll find there's little left of any rail infrastructure. Its mainly fairly narrow roads and lots of new housing between Queensbury and Bradford. As someone suggested above they might route up the A647 into Queensbury itself, but this would make it difficult to reach Illingworth & Ovenden as indicated on the 2040 vision.

I suspect like a lot of this, not a lot of actual thought has gone into what is between Bradford and Halifax and they are just Crayola marks on a map where a line used to be.

 

[BogiePicker]

The Bradford route to Queensbury went through quite a lot of rather deep cuttings IIRC. I would say the original route isn't viable any more, but if tunnelling/cut and cover gets cheap enough, and someone can be bothered to spend the money, then who knows. But one would almost certainly be looking at a new alignment if heavy rail is to be sought, and then there is the question of getting to Central Bradford itself

 

[30907]

The 2022 plan (which I assume is the latest) is here
https://www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/improving-transport/connectivity/
(download Mass Transit Vision).
It references Queensbury Tunnel but most likely as a cycle/walking route.
It includes tram/train and very light rail as options (but not tram) BUT the routes shown are mostly alongside existing rail lines, so I don't think we can assume a rail-based option for the route via Queensbury - "Advanced Bus RT" would seem to be the top-of-the-range option. That said, the corridor through Ovenden/Illingworth is identified as a seriously deprived area so there is at least the possibility that something might happen sometime!