BRADFORD Council’s Leader, Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, has referred to planned cuts to train services from Bradford to London by the government-owned LNER as an "outrage” – and she called on the government to instead deliver long-promised improvements.

LNER is currently consulting on its plans to cut the Bradford Forster Square to King’s Cross service from twice down to once daily.

Cllr Hinchcliffe has described the planned reduction in services as “an affront to aspirations to level up our towns and city”.

She said the government should be working with train operators to deliver improvements to Shipley and Bradford Forster Square stations and better co-ordination of timetables to enable faster journeys.

In a letter to Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, Cllr Hinchcliffe pointed out that there is a longstanding commitment to run trains from Bradford Forster Square to London King’s Cross via Leeds and Wakefield every other hour – rather than, as now, only twice a day in each direction.

She added that for too long Bradford and the North has had to deal with a substandard infrastructure which hampers the district’s and region’s ambitions for a top-class transport system to match that of London and the South-East.

Cllr Hinchcliffe urged the government to work with LNER to ensure the current service is maintained and to focus on the promised improved train services for people traveling from Bradford and Shipley.

READ: Tong Ward councillor slams LNER's slashing of Bradford-London services

She said: “It is frankly an outrage that LNER are even thinking about cutting services from Bradford to London and it’s completely counter to the government’s rhetoric on levelling up. We’ve made these points loud and clear and we will continue to do so.

"Better jobs and opportunities depend on better connectivity. Investment has been lacking for decades in our transport infrastructure and we’re campaigning hard to get Government to commit to Bradford as a stop on Northern Powerhouse Rail.

"We’ve so many people supporting us on this ambition but then we find that LNER at the same time are making proposals which take us backwards, not forwards. It’s unacceptable.

“Meanwhile delivery of the long-committed service upgrade to seven trains per day between Forster Square and London King’s Cross must be a top priority for LNER.

"The Treasury needs to release development funding for the DfT’s improvement programme and government then has to prioritise the funding required to enable immediate delivery of the essential infrastructure improvements. Until then it is imperative that, as a minimum, LNER’s current twice-daily service be continued.”

LNER responded by saying: “We continue to explore the possibility of introducing a regular Bradford-London service, including working with Network Rail to establish the infrastructure capacity works that would be required to enable this.

"In the meantime, our Bradford service will return to a single return service from May 2022.”