I think it’s a combination of “dusting down the bumper book of routes that were closed fifty years ago” and also “scattering proposals around West Yorkshire so that every district feels represented”.
I can’t think of any major flow that a Bradford Crossrail would improve (other than the “we must have it because it’s an old line that once closed” argument and the obvious crayonista appeal). Reversals at lightly used stations (Battersby, Carstairs) are perceived as a nuisance for passengers, but the time taken to reverse at a busy station like Bradford Interchange is fairly insignificant (when you consider that dwell times are going to have to be more than a minute to cope with the passenger numbers).
The journeys from Halifax to Leeds are slow because of the twisting nature of the route – unless you’re going to build HS3 along the Calder Valley, you’re never going to make much difference to this. And any Halifax – Leeds service via an avoiding chord outside Bradford comes at the cost of a Halifax – Bradford service and a Bradford – Leeds service – both big markets. Which services would you have omit Bradford? Reduce its links to Manchester (already much poorer than those from Leeds to Manchester)? Remove its links to East Lancashire? Or magically find spare paths at Leeds to allow a fifth service an hour from Halifax (that you don’t want to share with Bradford passengers)?
For Bradford Crossrail to work, you’d need to electrify the entire Calder Valley route and Copy Pit line (otherwise you’re going to see most services through Frizinghall run by diesels under the wires and see EMUs to Ilkley/ Skipton etc replaced by scarce DMUs). That’s on top of the cost of digging up the centre of the city (and finding an alignment that doesn’t involve too steep an incline etc). Like the SELRAP idea (and whatever happened to their amazing cost/benefit ratios by the way?), it’s a solution in need of a problem. Stick it in the “Single Transport Plan” to give the impression that we’re considering lots of things, and spreading investment around the region, but realistically you can forget about it.
It’s already slower to go from Leeds to Forster Square on a 100mph EMU (than to the Interchange on a 75mph DMU) – and the time taken to dwell at a central Bradford station plus climb the hill up to the Calder Valey line isn’t going to outweigh the current three of minutes that most reversals take at Interchange – i.e. you’d end up with slower journeys from Leeds to Halifax than we currently have.
At the moment, if you had a 100mph 333 leaving Leeds for Bradford Forster Square at the same time as a 75mph 142/155 (etc) leaving Leeds for the Calder Valley then the DMU would already be reversing out of the Interchange towards Halifax by the time the EMU reached the Forster Square buffers. How is running the Calder Valley service via Shipley going to make it faster? Maybe some people would rather a train appeared to travelled quickly on a more circuitous route, and feel that being sat for two or three minutes at Bradford Interchange drags, but so what?
Plus, by linking routes from both sides of Bradford, you’re going to tie all services around Bradford into a Gordian Knot (since routes to Skipton/ Ilkley/ Leeds via Kirkstall/ Leeds via Pudsey/ Calder Valley would be tied together with little scope to untangle a timetable dependent on single track sections and flat junctions).
As 61653 HTAFC says, the bus services (e.g. Halifax – Keighley) are slim and shrinking, which suggests little evidence of unmet markets for heavy rail from one side of Bradford to the other. Given the relative speed of the lines, it may still be quicker to do something like Keighley – Manchester or Ilkley – Huddersfield via Leeds (on the current routes) than travelling via Bradford, given the historically lower line speeds on the Calder Valley route – these are pretty minor markets regardless.
The Spen Valley idea sound better. Much better. The 268 provides a bus every ten minutes from Dewsbury to Bradford, despite traffic meaning it takes over an hour to link them – which suggests that there’s a market for heavy rail to tap into (even if those in Cleckheaton etc would rather have a direct service to Leeds, given the choice). It’s certainly got a lot more merit than Skipton - Colne, but may be a generation away (there’s maybe space post-HS3 through Batley for a Leeds – Dewsbury – Spen Valley – Bradford service?). Can’t see any of these big projects happening any time soon – if we can’t find the cash to electrify busy existing lines then I wouldn’t lost too much sleep over building new lines. Better to focus resources on “quick wins” like the line speed through Pudsey (a station that could be a really busy P&R next to the bypass, if it had more trains stopping at it). But, if we were to find the money to invest on one scheme, the “Spen” line is miles ahead of Bradford Crossrail/ Skipton – Colne or other schemes outside Leeds.
There’s been a number of stories on Look North recently about demand for primary school places outstripping supply in Leeds due to the significant numbers of people moving to the area/ new developments etc in a city that has seen a lot of population growth but not a lot of new suburban stations to compensate. But there’s seemingly little plan to serve that kind of suburban population growth with heavy rail, because it’s not on the alignment of a route closed by Beeching/ Castle etc. Contrast the enthusiast clamour to re-open closed alignments (often to rural villages) with the general apathy amongst a significant number of enthusiasts to build brand new alignments linking major places (HS2, Dawlish Avoider). Easier to suggest bringing back lines older people are nostalgic for than work out how to tackle 21st century traffic in places like north east Leeds?
