Who are Yorkshire's big winners and losers in the NPR reboot? I'm genuinely confused.

[Greetlander]

Looks good for Rotherham?
Bradford gets an upgrade but not as good as the cancelled high speed line would have brought? Some better services?
Sheffield gets a few more services?
Huddersfield gets further improvement on top of the TRU?
Halifax and the Calder Valley get neither wires nor service improvements?

Bradford - Huddersfield new line more crayonista than possible?

Any impact on the proposed WY metro?

 

[Farigiraf]

Since nothing's actually going to happen, I'd say the big winners are the local mayors for being able to announce this with fanfare, and the big losers are rail users in the North who, with regards to improvements, aren't likely to see much more than new trains and a handful of new stations in the next decade or so. Would love to be proven wrong!

 

[xotGD]

Halifax and the Calder Valley get neither wires nor service improvements?

They'll get faster journeys to Leeds if the trains don't have to reverse at Bradford I. in future.

 

[Bantamzen]

Don't be confused. At this moment this is all bluster. In time some more concrete plans will be proposed, a consultation period held, then lots of sucking air through teeth, and future ministers cancelling them because "it's gonna cost them".

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Don't be confused. At this moment this is all bluster. In time some more concrete plans will be proposed, a consultation period held, then lots of sucking air through teeth, and future ministers cancelling them because "it's gonna cost them".

Wow - this forum is getting more cynical! I mean, I am sure you are sadly correct - but even so.

As you say "at the moment all bluster" - or to use a forum phrase "political WIBBLE"!

 

[quantinghome]

I'm not sure how forum members expect detailed plans to magically appear without going through some sort of design process, which inevitably starts with a very high level statement of aims.

 

[The Pelican]

Bradford gets a small win (a new through station which I hope will be in addition to Interchange so it can make things better and not worse) worded to make it sound like a big win (new line construction putting Bradford on the corridor which is recieving new line construction/quad tracking and substanial speed upgrades for NPR).

 

[CdBrux]

I suspect the winners will the the consultancies getting paid the 1.1BN

 

[BrianW]

They'll get faster journeys to Leeds if the trains don't have to reverse at Bradford I. in future.

'Faster to Leeds' seems to be an underlying theme- statement delivered by Rachel Reeves, a Leeds MP.
Transport Sec said 2tph Leeds < > Shefiield is inadequate. So, improvements northern end of 'Sheffield Midland' station? Electrification Sheff- Leeds would leave a 'gap' to close later Sheffield- Wigston?
Overall it looks to me like a 'slow but steady' approach so not so thrown ooff course by overspends. A lot of good mentions for 'on time, on budget' TPRUpgrade, Huddersfield, ...
Mention of Leamside Line also 'spreads the jam tomorrow'.
IIUC not all HS2a land to be let go- continuing uncertainty for Staffs and Cheshire MPs and residents.
Not much sign of 'borrowing for investment'.
Manchester 'Interchange' will take time to consider. Could a Castlefield- Ardwick Flyover/under work , with Piccadilly Platforms 15/16?
Badly in need of a 'controlling mind'- a bold decision, Minister!

 

[nr758123]

Is the formation between Leeds and Bradford Interchange wide enough to allow some four tracking. It was reported on BBC Look North tonight that a journey time of 12 minutes could be achieved, but without four tracking that could only mean passengers at Pudsey and Bramley being losers as stops at those stations are cut. I wonder who the MP for Bramley and Pudsey is.

 

[KHCT]

Well, the almost 700,000 residents of East Yorkshire didn't even get mentioned in the announcement, let alone a penny of investment. The previously announced electrification of Hull-Leeds/Sheffield has gone out of the window. The only saving grace is that there's more chance of Starmer getting a second term than today's hot air turning in to reality.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

I've seen reference to Is the formation between Leeds and Bradford Interchange wide enough to allow some four tracking. It was reported on BBC Look North tonight that a journey time of 12 minutes could be achieved, but without four tracking that could only mean passengers at Pudsey and Bramley being losers as stops at those stations are cut. I wonder who the MP for Bramley and Pudsey is.

It was quadruple Leeds to Bramley (apart from a short section at Wortley), plus a section through the four platforms of Laisterdyke station. A certain Reeves R. is the M.P. for Leeds West and Pudsey I believe!

 

[ohgoditsjames]

Government announces electrification plan for city rail route

Sheffield is set to see one of its major rail routes electrified for the first time, the Government has announced.

www.thestar.co.uk

This mentions electrification from Sheffield to Leeds for phase 1 and from Sheffield to Manchester for phase 3, refreshing to see Sheffield and electrification mentioned in the same sentence, as to whether it will become a reality is another thing entirely!

The first phase will prioritise upgrades and electrification between Leeds and Sheffield, Leeds and York and Leeds and Bradford to transform commutes, which the Government says is set to be done in the 2030s.

The second phase of NPR will build a new route between Liverpool and Manchester, running via Manchester Airport and Warrington, following in the 2030s. The third phase will focus on improved connections between Manchester and Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds, and explore options for Manchester to Bradford.

 

[Richard123]

The ability of people on this forum to turn any thread into “we hate the government “ is mind-boggling.

This is a £45bn funding allocation to public transport with £1.1bn up front for design work. That’s huge news..

NPR was cancelled by a previous government, not the present.

Why is this forum so cynical?

 

[Snow1964]

Government announces electrification plan for city rail route

Sheffield is set to see one of its major rail routes electrified for the first time, the Government has announced.

www.thestar.co.uk

This mentions electrification from Sheffield to Leeds for phase 1 and from Sheffield to Manchester for phase 3, refreshing to see Sheffield and electrification mentioned in the same sentence, as to whether it will become a reality is another thing entirely!

The DfT has two press release / news and the Sheffield-Leeds electrification is mentioned in this one

Multi-billion-pound drive to transform rail and growth across Yorkshire and North East

Northern Powerhouse Rail plans announced to grow productivity, with faster rail commutes across Yorkshire, better journeys to the North East and route upgrades.

www.gov.uk

The first phase will prioritise upgrades and electrification between Leeds-Sheffield, Leeds-York and Leeds-Bradford to transform commutes, set to be delivered in the 2030s. In the North East, work on the business case for the Leamside Line will be taken forward, as part of ensuring NPR services reach Newcastle....

Going back to the Ops original question, there is a £45bn cap, so who benefits the most is whoever gets their schemes built before the money runs out. The smart thing to do is get lots of small quicker things built, not one or two major works that get bogged down in planning, consultations, redesign etc. Then discover the £45bn is all committed elsewhere so it stalls.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Bradford gets a small win (a new through station which I hope will be in addition to Interchange so it can make things better and not worse) worded to make it sound like a big win (new line construction putting Bradford on the corridor which is recieving new line construction/quad tracking and substanial speed upgrades for NPR).

I'm still not convinced that a station some distance outside the city centre just to solve the non-existent problem of reversals is even a small win for Bradford.
The city spokespeople are constantly moaning about being turned into a Leeds suburb, but NPR (in the unlikely event that it happens) will only hasten that process.

If the only HS2 station that Birmingham was getting was the Airport Interchange, would the West Midlands Mayor and all the Brum MPs be celebrating?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Jan 2026 ==

Why is this forum so cynical?

Because there's over a decade of threads about NPR and the like, and very little to show for it. It doesn't matter which government promises things and which government cancels them, governments of all colours are adept at making promises with the left hand while picking our pockets with the right. The OP of this thread asks about the impact on the West Yorkshire "Metro" mass transit project... which was kicked into the long grass just a couple of weeks ago.

If you aren't cynical, you aren't paying attention.

 

[Bantamzen]

Wow - this forum is getting more cynical! I mean, I am sure you are sadly correct - but even so.

As you say "at the moment all bluster" - or to use a forum phrase "political WIBBLE"!

Me? Cynical?

I'm not sure how forum members expect detailed plans to magically appear without going through some sort of design process, which inevitably starts with a very high level statement of aims.

As far as NPR goes, we've been through all this already (by we, I technically mean the people of Bradford, of which I am no longer a resident but I do still travel there a lot). There were years of this kind of bluster, a super duper shiny high speed link from Liverpool to Manchester, through the Pennines into Bradford & Leeds. But nothing ever came of it. Slowly but surely the bluster slowed to a stop, and the idea was allowed to gather dust. And it's probably no surprise, because I'm sure the people charged with turning concept into design took one look at the geography that NPR was going to have to tackle, looked at what it could conceivably cost, and allowed the dust to gather. Especially when HS2, which did have an actual design started to cost many more bags of money than the many bags of money it was originally going to cost, and suddenly the bits north of Birmingham were canned. Sure there were plenty of post-grads coming up with super maps and PowerPoint presentations, showing what we could have had there been a big bag of never ending money, but reality is so very different.

About the only people still clinging onto NPR were Bradford Council and the West Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority. Bizarrely what had started out as an underground station around where the Interchange is, turned into a randomly placed station south east of the city, at a wholesale meat market, with absolutely no thought about how any line was ever going to get there. And that's where "Bradford Gateway" has been left to the elements until now.

NPR may emerge as a new alignment between Liverpool, Warrington & Manchester. Maybe. But there is no way it's getting a whole new tunnel through the Pennines, as the very high level statement of aims promised all those years ago.

The ability of people on this forum to turn any thread into “we hate the government “ is mind-boggling.

This is a £45bn funding allocation to public transport with £1.1bn up front for design work. That’s huge news..

NPR was cancelled by a previous government, not the present.

Why is this forum so cynical?

See above, and all the shattered dreams of HS2 / NPR / West Yorkshire Trams, etc, etc, blah, blah. Like I say we have been here before. Politicians are great at making promises, consultants are great at making them too expensive for politicians....

 

[IanXC]

Well, the almost 700,000 residents of East Yorkshire didn't even get mentioned in the announcement, let alone a penny of investment.

It might just have something to do with electing a Mayor who refused to engage with the other 3 Yorkshire Mayors on transport matters, well on any matters really.

 

[Grimsby town]

I'm still not convinced that a station some distance outside the city centre just to solve the non-existent problem of reversals is even a small win for Bradford.
The city spokespeople are constantly moaning about being turned into a Leeds suburb, but NPR (in the unlikely event that it happens) will only hasten that process.

If the only HS2 station that Birmingham was getting was the Airport Interchange, would the West Midlands Mayor and all the Brum MPs be celebrating?

This does all seem a bit a Birmingham Curzon Street which people claim isn't in Birmingham city centre. The proposed Bradford station is 300 metres from Interchange. As it's almost certainly going to be an underground station, there's not much stopping a short pedestrian tunnel to Interchange.

The reverse is pretty limiting if Bradford ever wants better services. If a line is built from Huddersfield, which appears to be the plan, it will require the reverse to be dealt with if a couple of transpennine services are to be diverted that way. If not the journey time will be too uncompetitive for Leeds to Manchester journeys. This way, it at least maintains some competitiveness with the services travelling via Dewsbury.

 

[Bantamzen]

This does all seem a bit a Birmingham Curzon Street which people claim isn't in Birmingham city centre. The proposed Bradford station is 300 metres from Interchange. As it's almost certainly going to be an underground station, there's not much stopping a short pedestrian tunnel to Interchange.

A tunnel from where to where? The site is currently a wholesale market, at a higher elevation than the Interchange, with the Leeds line further to the south east emerging from a deep cutting, and on a steep gradient. Don't be fooled into thinking there's been any thinking on the proposed site, it's literally a pin in a map choice.

The reverse is pretty limiting if Bradford ever wants better services. If a line is built from Huddersfield, which appears to be the plan, it will require the reverse to be dealt with if a couple of transpennine services are to be diverted that way. If not the journey time will be too uncompetitive for Leeds to Manchester journeys. This way, it at least maintains some competitiveness with the services travelling via Dewsbury.

It really isn't. I used to think so, but a couple of minutes swapping ends makes little difference to the overall time. The limiting factor is the Calder Valley line, it's just too busy with stoppers and semi-fasts to shoehorn in TPE services. And it's all pretty moot with the coming of GBR, I'm sure in a decade or two the Northern & TPE operations will be unrecognisable and probably much more closely aligned.

 

[Grimsby town]

A tunnel from where to where? The site is currently a wholesale market, at a higher elevation than the Interchange, with the Leeds line further to the south east emerging from a deep cutting, and on a steep gradient. Don't be fooled into thinking there's been any thinking on the proposed site, it's literally a pin in a map choice.

It's going to be an underground station so a tunnel from the underground station to Interchange. How do you know its not been thought about? I can't say I know exactly the level of engineering thought that has been given, but I do know a lot has been done on NPR that the public isn't aware of.

It really isn't. I used to think so, but a couple of minutes swapping ends makes little difference to the overall time. The limiting factor is the Calder Valley line, it's just too busy with stoppers and semi-fasts to shoehorn in TPE services. And it's all pretty moot with the coming of GBR, I'm sure in a decade or two the Northern & TPE operations will be unrecognisable and probably much more closely aligned.

It's also another couple of minutes negotiating the slow lines in and out of the station around to Hammerton Street. It'll be a 6 or 7 minute time saving for through trains. A more direct line from Huddersfield to Low Moor will mean the Calder Valley is no longer an issue. Whether its worth the money or not, I'm not sure but it's certainly not as dramatic pointless as some are making out.

 

[may032]

As it's almost certainly going to be an underground station

Where has this been suggested in recent announcements/reports?

 

[tbtc]

The ability of people on this forum to turn any thread into “we hate the government “ is mind-boggling.

This is a £45bn funding allocation to public transport with £1.1bn up front for design work. That’s huge news..

NPR was cancelled by a previous government, not the present.

Why is this forum so cynical?

It's a good question, I think some people enjoy it, the fatalistic outlooks can feel a bit like a competition some days, even after a good couple of decades of a generally "rising tide" for heavy rail

Personally, I think today's announcement sounds great news. It's more realistic than what went before, and probably better to tackle various bits separately. The fact that the government are still invested in investing in heavy rail for the north of England feels significant, even after all.

A Bradford - Huddersfield line capable of providing a relatively fast Bradford - Manchester service sounds a lot more reasonable than having to divert all NPR services through Bradford (which would have meant Leeds-Manchester journey times were barely any faster than today's services through Dewsbury etc)

Rotherham may get the "Gateway" station that it would need in order to be a stop on longer distance/ higher speed services (because they recognize that a good station on the fringes of the centre of a significant improvement on a "local trains for local people" station right in the town centre)

I don't know how they'll actually improve capacity at the northern end of Sheffield, the station is cramped/ listed/ directly above the River Sheaf/ hemmed between an embankment and the Ring Road... plus you have to negotiate the flat junction for Worksop services and the twisting two track line towards the flat junction at Meadowhall before you reach Meadowhall and it's "fun size" platforms (that can't handle a double 185 properly)... Nice to have the Sheffield-Leeds corridor mentioned in these kind of discussions (rather than improvements for "the north" being entirely along the M62 corridor), but I can't see an easy/affordable solution here

Halifax gets a mixed bag. Faster Leeds trains (by avoiding Bradford Interchange etc), but maybe slower/fewer Manchester trains if the Bradford-Manchester market moves to running via Huddersfield? (Plus presumably an end to the cheap "Northern" fares once GBR takes full control)

 

[Grimsby town]

Where has this been suggested in recent announcements/reports?

It hasn't been announced but the topography in the area makes it likely that it'll be at least partially underground. Even if it wasn't underground, the height difference to the city centre is around 20-25 metres. It'll be pretty similar to Stockport station in terms of height and distance to the main shopping area. Not ideal but as long as a shallow gradient walkway is provided, then not a huge barrier to using the station.

 

[The Pelican]

I think the station has to be served by trains which all also stop at Interchange to make any sense, Charing Cross-Waterloo East style. I presume it would be East of the former Hammerton Street junction, where trains used to run towards Adolphus Street- which would make it further from Interchange than Forster Square is. Closing Interchange for the new station would mean trains were a lot further from Bradford town Centre. Reinstating the chord which ran from Leeds towards Halifax bypassing interchange wouldn't make sense- it's hard to see what trains would usefully skip Bradford.

I think that this idea was devised during the time period when it looked like NPR might run through Bradford instead of Huddersfield- if the fastest Manchester-Leeds trains ran through Bradford, bypassing a reversal to stop at a not very central through station might have made sense.

I don't think it'll be underground- the UK doesn't really have a tradition of replacing overground Network Rail stations with underground ones. A tram is more likely, but will only happen as part of the Leeds-Bradford tramway plans- the UK doesn't have any small tram systems.

Nonetheless, it's probably a good idea to have a through station as a way of getting to different parts of the city. I hope there are no struggles with the gradients- "wouldn't have happened to Smeaton". If the Manchester services stop there, it might be an attractive place to commute to Manchester from.

 

[Paragon]

It might just have something to do with electing a Mayor who refused to engage with the other 3 Yorkshire Mayors on transport matters, well on any matters really.

Not really. He was fully engaged with NPR's original intentions which included upgraded (electrified) routes to Hull from Sheffield and Leeds. The actual issue here is that in the early stages of every 'pan-northern' rail initiative in my lifetime, Hull has been promised upgrades, but as the project develops and costs begin to become apparent, the Hull sections are quietly dropped. It seems like David Serpell's singled branch line from Leeds being enough for the East Riding remains foremost in government thinking.

 

[Bantamzen]

It's going to be an underground station so a tunnel from the underground station to Interchange. How do you know its not been thought about? I can't say I know exactly the level of engineering thought that has been given, but I do know a lot has been done on NPR that the public isn't aware of.

I'm sure there is, but an underground station at a higher elevation and some distance from the current Interchange (and even further away from the city centre) with a passenger tunnel then going back to the Interchange makes zero sense. Zero. I seriously doubt that anyone has looked at that seriously for more than a few seconds.

It's also another couple of minutes negotiating the slow lines in and out of the station around to Hammerton Street. It'll be a 6 or 7 minute time saving for through trains. A more direct line from Huddersfield to Low Moor will mean the Calder Valley is no longer an issue. Whether its worth the money or not, I'm not sure but it's certainly not as dramatic pointless as some are making out.

And a 20 walk minute to and from the city centre, totally negating any savings in timings. Again, it makes zero sense.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Not really. He was fully engaged with NPR's original intentions which included upgraded (electrified) routes to Hull from Sheffield and Leeds. The actual issue here is that in the early stages of every 'pan-northern' rail initiative in my lifetime, Hull has been promised upgrades, but as the project develops and costs begin to become apparent, the Hull sections are quietly dropped. It seems like David Serpell's singled branch line from Leeds being enough for the East Riding remains foremost in government thinking.

Doesn't negate what you've said, but I was involved in some of the early work on NPR towards Hull and one of the big problems with anything other than OLE and resignalling is ground condition Selby to Hull. That isn't the embankments, but the underlying natural strata.

 

[Bantamzen]

I think the station has to be served by trains which all also stop at Interchange to make any sense, Charing Cross-Waterloo East style. I presume it would be East of the former Hammerton Street junction, where trains used to run towards Adolphus Street- which would make it further from Interchange than Forster Square is. Closing Interchange for the new station would mean trains were a lot further from Bradford town Centre. Reinstating the chord which ran from Leeds towards Halifax bypassing interchange wouldn't make sense- it's hard to see what trains would usefully skip Bradford.

I think that this idea was devised during the time period when it looked like NPR might run through Bradford instead of Huddersfield- if the fastest Manchester-Leeds trains ran through Bradford, bypassing a reversal to stop at a not very central through station might have made sense.

I don't think it'll be underground- the UK doesn't really have a tradition of replacing overground Network Rail stations with underground ones. A tram is more likely, but will only happen as part of the Leeds-Bradford tramway plans- the UK doesn't have any small tram systems.

Nonetheless, it's probably a good idea to have a through station as a way of getting to different parts of the city. I hope there are no struggles with the gradients- "wouldn't have happened to Smeaton". If the Manchester services stop there, it might be an attractive place to commute to Manchester from.

The problem is that the area where the through station is proposed is light industrial, and frankly isn't a nice place to walk through even during the day, let alone at night. I used to work about 10 mins away, and have been through the area countless times & can promise you few people would ever use it. There were some aspirations from Bradford Council that the area would be redeveloped as part of the NPR project when it was envisioned as a new alignment. But as it stands with the current one, the area is on a steep elevation and enters a deep cutting prior to curving back towards the Interchange. It's just not a place to be spending tens of millions, when there are far better places to use funds.

 

[Ben427]

Not really. He was fully engaged with NPR's original intentions which included upgraded (electrified) routes to Hull from Sheffield and Leeds. The actual issue here is that in the early stages of every 'pan-northern' rail initiative in my lifetime, Hull has been promised upgrades, but as the project develops and costs begin to become apparent, the Hull sections are quietly dropped. It seems like David Serpell's singled branch line from Leeds being enough for the East Riding remains foremost in government thinking.

There was never funding for electrification to Hull

Whereas this is the first time there's been a funding envelope assigned to NPR and there has been design work already been done in certain areas. This announcement is the result of alot of hard work and the funding envelope is a good win.

People seem to forget there have been little or no concrete plans previously for NPR. It was announced, TfN produced their preferred option which was gold plated and frankly was probably OTT. The IRP rejected that and came up with a crayon drawing with a bizarre high speed line terminating at the Standedge tunnels which made zero sense.

This is the first time there's an actual commitment with a (very) rough timescale/programme.

East Yorks CA are late to the party, Luke has shown zero interest in getting on board with the Yorkshire Plan for Rail either.

What interventions Hull needs for improved East West connectivity are actually needed?

People also seem to forget that TRU is being delivered on time and on budget (it's a £11bn project, not a drop in the ocean) and the reports of mass transit being cancelled in WY are premature

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jan 2026 ==

It's light industrial at the moment. Stations and transport investment gives the opportunity for wholesale regeneration which is what Bradford needs more than most

The problem is that the area where the through station is proposed is light industrial, and frankly isn't a nice place to walk through even during the day, let alone at night. I used to work about 10 mins away, and have been through the area countless times & can promise you few people would ever use it. There were some aspirations from Bradford Council that the area would be redeveloped as part of the NPR project when it was envisioned as a new alignment. But as it stands with the current one, the area is on a steep elevation and enters a deep cutting prior to curving back towards the Interchange. It's just not a place to be spending tens of millions, when there are far better places to use fun

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jan 2026 ==

It's light industrial at the moment. Stations and transport investment gives the opportunity for wholesale regeneration which is what Bradford needs more than most

The problem is that the area where the through station is proposed is light industrial, and frankly isn't a nice place to walk through even during the day, let alone at night. I used to work about 10 mins away, and have been through the area countless times & can promise you few people would ever use it. There were some aspirations from Bradford Council that the area would be redeveloped as part of the NPR project when it was envisioned as a new alignment. But as it stands with the current one, the area is on a steep elevation and enters a deep cutting prior to curving back towards the Interchange. It's just not a place to be spending tens of millions, when there are far better places to use fun