A LONG-DELAYED new rail station is still on track to open next May, a progress report reveals.

The under-construction £10.8 million Low Moor railway station has suffered a series of delays, most recently this summer, when the opening date was put back by a further ten months as teams searched for more hidden mine workings.

A 60m-deep mine shaft had been discovered at the site earlier in the year, prompting the extra surveys.

But now a new report, which will go before the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Bradford sub-committee on Friday, says a May opening is still being worked towards.

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It says construction work is “progressing well”, with the creation of the new platforms and car park areas well under way.

Installation of the passenger lifts and footbridge has begun, most of the necessary track adjustments have been completed and the main entrance by road is finished.

It adds: “Previously unrecorded mine workings, discovered on the northern side of the new station development, are currently being treated.

"This requires substantial engineering works, including the filling and capping of two previously unidentified shafts.

“The capping of these shafts is almost complete and, when finished, will allow the remainder of the station platforms and lift shaft and footbridge to be completed.”

When it opens, Low Moor, on the Calder Valley Line between Bradford and Halifax, will be the 69th rail station in West Yorkshire following the opening of Apperley Bridge in December last year and Kirkstall Forge in Leeds last month.

Work on the Low Moor station earlier this year

It is part of a £45m programme of investment in rail travel in West Yorkshire.

The station has been funded by West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Bradford Council and Network Rail but contingency funds mean the extra work has not added to the overall costs.

The committee meets at 11am on Friday at the Ernest Saville Room in City Hall, Bradford.

They will also hear an update on the new Apperley Bridge railway station. This says that to coincide with its opening, bus operator TLC Travel had started a trial bus link between the station and north Bradford.

It adds: “Usage of the service has been low and from late October the service will only operate at peak times.”

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