Without a doubt Elland, will be the next place within Calderdale to receive a brand new railway station. Regardless as to whenever or not this should be delivered before or after a brand new station at Hipperholme that unlike Elland, suffers from significant levels of nitrogen dioxide and as a result lies within an ‘Air Quality Management Area’ [1] With the estimated cost of this new station standing at over £14 million, with a 40% contingency added taking the estimated cost up to a potential £19.6 million according to a meeting of Cabinet’s Transport Working Party, held on the 16th February 2017. [2] Lets make sure we get this right and by that I mean in the right place!
What am I talking about?
Someone of you may think I’m talking about providing this station where it was suggested by Chris Blakely within the Halifax Courier on the 11th April 2014, upon the site of what used to Greetland Railway Station. [3] However you will be mistaken as although a station upon this site deserves fair consideration, due to the obvious benefits outlined by Chris Blakely but also down to the fact that the proximity between this and the proposed station adjacent to Lowfield’s Business Park, could potentially deem a station upon the Greetland site un-viable.
Is this proposed station in the right location within ELLAND itself?
The proposed location sits between the River Calder and Lowfields Way, directly adjacent to the entrance of Lowfields business park. Upon what is an embankment, something that will require “platforms being constructed at a level 5-6m above surrounding ground level” [4]. Which is probably why this station has been estimated to cost so much. It is envisaged that this station will NOT be served by Grand Central’s London Trains “but all the Northern Rail operated services would call at Elland, in order to provide a similar level of service as provided at Brighouse.” [5] A station that’s “best local service frequency is hourly” according to HADRAG, the Halifax & District Rail Action Group. [6] Who are calling for an improved service as “figures show a ten-year increase of 476%”. However any additional services calling at Brighouse could have implications for a new station for Elland and visa versa, as the number of trains that can run within short space of each other is limited and is severely hindered when trains have to stop at Signals, Junctions and Stations. Currently it is yet unclear whenever or not this new station will see Leeds-Manchester trains stop as “There is therefore limited capacity to accommodate change at the Leeds end of the route”. [7]
So what could be done to alleviate this potential problem?
One answer is for this station to incorporate a ‘passing loop’ a facility that allows trains to overtake one another without causing a build up of trains further down the line. Something that HADRAG has also campaigned for, for a while now albeit upon the other-side of the valley. However in order to provide this facility along with a Station for Elland, upon the chosen Lowfields site this would require the embankment to be built up and out significantly, along with the bridge over Lowfield’s Way and the viaduct spanning the River Calder widened to cater for another two additional tracks. Something that would obviously be quite costly. However all is not lost, as just little bit further West, lies the site of the original Elland Railway Station. This site which is significantly longer than that of the Lowfields site, lies in between a tunnel and a four track viaduct and is extensively flat in comparison due to its previous railway use. Although this would incur land acquisition costs, something that may only be needed to build a car park.
Another significant benefit of this site is that it is only a short walk across Elland bridge, through a pedestrian tunnel that removes the need to cross under the slip road of the A629 unlike the proposed Lowfields site, which doesn’t have such a facility for an even busier slip-road of which there are two to cross, by those walking down adjacent to the Elland Riorges Link. Although it is possible to pass under the dual carriage way from the opposite site of the site, this may not be considered as a safer and attractive alternative especially late at night. Although the route down Westons Lane is much improved thanks to the construction of Morrisions Supermarket. Century Road remains relatively unchanged and the Lowfields Site is still sat in between a railway line and the Calderdale Way. Even on the other side of these two sites the land is predominately industrial and commercial, in stark contrast to the site of the original Elland Station that abuts Valley Mills, a residential complex.
A downside to this site is that buses aren’t as frequent in comparison to the proposed site at Lowfields that is close to the 503 Halifax – Huddersfield Bus Route that runs every ten minutes. Although if we looked at the current arrangements, the nearest bus stop when travelling towards Huddersfield on this service is located directly under Lowfields Way, over 140 meters from this proposed station. The bus stop for those travelling in the opposite direction on this service is over 300 meters away from this proposed station. Although this could be changed by re-routing this service back along itself adding whatever time it would take to travel the additional 350 meters, this would still leave the bus stop for this service over 140 meters from the proposed station. This is something that may or may not happen as buses are provided on a commercial basis and bus companies would need to be sure that any diversion via the railway station would not be detrimental to their viability. [8] With it looking like this new station will only have 1 train per hour possibly two, then it is difficult to see how bus companies could financially justify re-routing a regular bus service that runs every ten minutes. If we really wanted a new railway station to serve Elland with a frequent bus service then the site of Greetland would have clearly been chosen!
It is also hard to see why town folk would walk all the way to South Gate, the bottom of Victoria Road, Jepson Lane then wait to catch a bus to travel less than one and a half kilometers, only to then walk another 100 plus meters to the station when they could quite easily catch this service in the opposite direction to Halifax, that by this point will have a bus interchange right outside the railway station. Which ever site this new station is eventually built upon a shuttle bus service may have to be provided.
With the potential for a station to serve Elland that could serve more than 2 trains per hour, without impacting upon the potential to improve services through Brighouse. At least a station upon this alternative site deserves fair consideration before we push ahead and spend up to £20 million .
(Distances have been calculated by using the ‘path’ feature on Google Earth)
Photograph of the old Elland Station Site (Below)
http://www.lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/Calder%20Valley%20Main%20Line/Elland/DSCN3200.jpg
References
[1] https://www.calderdale.gov.uk/v2/businesses/pollution/air-quality/air-quality-management-areas-aqma
[2] Cabinet Transport Working Part Minutes of meeting held 16th February 2017
[3] Halifax Courier ‘A better place to building rail station for the town’ 11-04-2014
[4] New Stations Study Report / PDF Page 40
[5] New Stations Study Report / PDF Page 39
[6] https://hadrag.com/2017/04/10/elland-next/
[7] New Stations Study Report / PDF Page 40
[8] Response to question asked at CMBC’s Cabinet held on 7th October 2013
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