A COUNCILLOR has branded plans by the government-controlled rail operator LNER to slash rail services between Bradford to London as another example of the city being forced to play “second fiddle to Leeds”.

LNER is proposing a significant timetable change that will result in services from Bradford being cut, whilst there will be an increase in services from Leeds, York and Doncaster.

The number of services from Bradford Forster Square to London will be cut from two to just one - but at the same time LNER is looking to increase services from Horsforth from two to seven.

Train operator Grand Central run four daily services from Bradford Interchange to London meaning under the proposed changes there will be only five daily services between Bradford and London.

Tong Cllr Matt Edwards (Green Party) said: “Bradford is one of the biggest cities in the country and we are going to see a ridiculous situation where a suburban station on the edge of Leeds is going to have more services to the capital then we do.

“Bradford has always played second fiddle to Leeds and under this current government that gulf is widening.

"The Conservative government is constantly talking about ‘levelling up’ and ‘rebalancing the inequality between the north and south’ but investment doesn’t seem to get passed Leeds – or Manchester.”

Earlier this year, the government announced the formation of a new public body Great British Railways to integrate the railways and deliver “passenger-focused travel with simpler, modern fares and reliable services”.

LNER is already owned by the Department for Transport (DfT) and has run services along the East Coast mainline since Virgin Trains East Coast returned to the government following sustained financial difficulties.

Cllr Edwards added: “It’s not a great sign for Bradford and other parts of the north that one of the only branches of our railway network that is already government-run is looking at cutting services to the city.

“If they want to reduce to the north-south divide, Bradford needs to attract big investment from business or government agencies and we can’t do this without better long distance connections not just to and from London but across the north.

“One way for the government to do this would be to put the new headquarters for Great British Railways here in Bradford. I’m sure we’ll see rail services in and out of the city dramatically improve if London-based civil servants see what we have to put up with.”

A LNER spokesperson said: “Due to local track and platform capacity constraints between Leeds and Bradford, our current second Bradford service requires an Azuma to be stabled in Leeds for several hours (from 9am to 7pm) ahead of making its return journey.

"Continuing this service under our new, more extensive timetable from May 2022 would result in shorter trains running on our core route, including at Leeds.

“We are proposing this second service is removed, so we can deliver more seats through the day at Leeds, which is of benefit for Bradford customers connecting with LNER via the regular Northern Trains service who operate six trains per hour between Leeds and Bradford.

“In addition, direct Bradford-London services will continue to be operated by Grand Central, alongside LNER’s one return service per day.

“We continue to explore the possibility of introducing a regular Bradford-London service in the coming years, including working with Network Rail to establish the infrastructure capacity works that would be required to enable this.”

The train company added: "Our proposed May 2022 timetable has been developed by Network Rail with all train and freight operators on the East Coast Main Line. It has involved balancing long-distance, high-speed, regional and commuter/local services alongside the needs of the rail freight sector.

"Due to this approach, our focus on maximising the benefits of investment in the East Coast Main Line and managing remaining capacity constraints on the route, the timetable does involve a series of trade-offs.

"The purpose of our consultation is to seek views on the proposed changes, which include 39 more LNER services each weekday, up to 17,000 extra seats per day and reduced journey times and on long-distance services between London, the East Midlands, the North of England and Scotland, while protecting reliability."