Low Moor station plan is spared budget cut (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Metro sets aside £5.5 million after including Bradford site in strategic schemes

4:50am Saturday 31st July 2010 in News By Will Kilner

Plans to build a new rail station in south Bradford appear to have escaped Government spending cuts.

Fears had been growing for the future of Low Moor station amid a backdrop of Department for Transport funding reductions.

But the West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority (Metro) has now agreed to set aside £5.5 million for the new station after including the project in its heavily-revised strategic programme of schemes.

Funding earmarked for the scheme will now be spread over a longer period, meaning the station is more likely to open in 2014 instead of 2012 as originally hoped.

At a meeting in Leeds yesterday, Metro’s executive board agreed to protect the money committed to Low Moor along with £3m committed to integrated transport improvements in Bradford city centre, including the new bus stop on Hall Ings.

But other schemes took a hit, including the Connecting Airedale project, which saw its funding reduced from £3m to £2m, and the Leeds Inner Ring Road project which had its funding slashed from £4m to £2m. The Kirklees Strategic Economic Zone budget was cut from £5m to £3m, and a scheme to replace burr walls in Calderdale had its funding reduced from £4m to £3.5m.

Bradford Councillor Chris Greaves, chairman of Metro, said: “Low Moor is still in there with no funding cuts at all, but that scheme has been pushed back a bit.

“Although it has been pushed back, it did seem that Network Rail were already moving at that sort of pace, so it might have been pushed back anyway. The main thing is that it’s still going to happen. If we can move it forward and deliver it earlier, we will.”

James Vasey, chairman of Bradford Rail Users’ Group, which has campaigned for the station, said: “We are very happy that it is still going ahead and that it has been saved.”