Discussions on rail advances in Calderdale

Guest speaker will be David Hoggarth, Director of Rail North, who will talk about “Devolution in Action”. Rail North is a body of local authorities from across Northern England.

In partnership with the Department for Transport, Rail North will be managing the new Northern and TransPennine Express trains franchises.

For HADRAG, the meeting is an opportunity to step up the group’s campaign to get a better deal for the part of the Calder Valley Line that goes through through Brighouse, including the planned new station at Elland, and also for Sowerby Bridge station.

Long-standing Brighouse rail user Peter Davies, Secretary of HADRAG said: “Over the last few years we’ve been seeing a lot more people using Brighouse station on a regular basis.

“Brighouse is a sizeable town with huge potential for even more people to use the train for work, business and leisure if only we had a better service. Grand Central trains to London give our station a boost but compared with some places we still get a poor deal.”

Earlier in the year the group circulated a paper calling for a programme of improvements. With strong praise for “Northern Connect” express-style trains with brand new rolling stock planned by new train operator Arriva for the line through Hebden Bridge, Halifax and Bradford, the paper argues that the promised benefits are uneven and need to be spread to the Brighouse Line.

Stephen Waring, Chair of HADRAG said: “We shall be delighted to welcome back David Hoggarth, a good friend of our group, in his new capacity as head of Rail North. We know that David and his colleagues are ready to listen to us, as are the bosses of Arriva the new operator of the Northern train franchise.

“We hope local rail users, actual and would-be, from Brighouse and surrounding area will come to our meeting and join the discussion.”

The meeting is on May 14 from 12.30pm at the Central Methodist Church, Commercial Street, Brighouse.