Shipley rail depot to be built on former Crossley Evans site

The new electric train care depot was announced by then rail minister Huw Merriman in March and will be built next to Shipley rail station, on the former Crossley Evans scrapyard site.

Plans to construct the huge buildings associated with the depot have now been approved by Bradford Council.

It means the scheme, one of the biggest developments currently planned for the district, can now go ahead.

The huge facility, expected to be completed by 2027, would bring more than 90 jobs to the town and be known as the Shipley TrainCare Centre.

It would see electric trains repaired, maintained, and stored in Shipley instead of the Neville Hill depot in East Leeds, which will temporarily shut as part of upcoming Transpennine route work.

When Neville Hill re-opens, the electric train depot will remain in Shipley.

The plans submitted by Network Rail included a 148.5 metre by 41.9 metre maintenance building, an under-frame cleaning facility, a carriage wash machine, and a gatehouse building.

The site of the planned depot (Image: T&A)

The application said: “It has been a long-term ambition of the rail industry to seek improved depot and traincare facilities for the electric fleet serving the Wharfedale and Airedale lines, as the facility currently at Neville Hill is near capacity and is not located centrally to serve the routes.

“A detailed feasibility study of alternative locations was produced during 2021 which identified the location at Shipley as the most suitable in meeting the criteria required for a new depot facility.

“The purpose of the depot is to provide day-to-day railway servicing, maintenance and stabling of trains associated with the Northern franchise and will see the typical class 331 and 333 electric multiple units used on the Airedale and Wharfedale routes utilising the facility.

“The depot will be operational 24 hours a day throughout the week and weekends. It is anticipated that approximately 92 staff (full-time equivalent) will be employed at the site, with normal operation comprising four shift teams with an average shift attendance of up to 28 on site at any one time.”

The site was originally built as a goods yard alongside the railway line between Shipley and Bradford, opened by the Leeds & Bradford Railway Company in 1846.

For decades it handled consignments of coal and stone from the nearby Wrose Quarry.

More recently it was a scrapyard operated by Crossley Evans. The company agreed to relocate to allow the development.