The Spencer Group has been praised for its works to ensure a new £10m train station in Bradford, West Yorkshire, remains on course for completion in the summer.
Apperley Bridge will open to passengers in five months’ time, 50 years after the old station there was closed.
Spencer’s onsite team, led by Project Director Dave Taylor, was praised by Network Rail during a recent visit tour of the site.
During the visit, which was also attended by local MP David Ward and ward councillor Jeanette Sunderland, Network Rail Commercial Scheme Sponsor Dan Guiher said: “The progress every time I am here is astounding. I look forward to coming back in a month and seeing the platform surfaces in.”
The project is on-target for its end-of-August opening, with the passenger platforms, 380-space car park and access road now well under way.
Dave said: “We were delighted to welcome Dan, David and Jeanette to Apperley Bridge and show them the progress we are making. Our onsite team has been working hard to ensure all works will be completed in the summer and we remain on course for that.”
Once the station is up-and-running, it will have one train an hour in each direction on the Bradford to Leeds line, with the potential to increase this if passenger numbers grow.
The station will feature a new access road off Apperley Lane, pick-up and drop-off point, fully-accessible platforms with staircases and ramps, CCTV surveillance, passenger information displays and public address system, secure cycle parking and shelters.
Apperley Bridge’s old train station closed in 1965 because of the Beeching Axe – the reduction of route network and restructuring of the railways in Great Britain. Plans to re-open it were first announced in 1999, although years of delays followed.
Mr Ward, Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, said the station had been a long time coming and would be a “big boost to the area”.
The continued good progress comes despite restricted access due to a weak bridge spanning the railway lines not being able to support construction traffic.
Once complete, the access road will connect the car park with the station and the above mentioned bridge, which will become a footbridge linking the two new platforms.
This latest praise from Network Rail comes after Spencer’s team was also congratulated by Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin during a visit in December 2014 to the station.
Apperley Bridge is one part of the £16.9m West Yorkshire Rail Growth (WYRG) scheme, which was granted ‘Programme Entry Status’ by the Department for Transport (DfT) in December 2011. The DfT will provide a maximum of £10.3m towards the scheme.
The remaining 40 per cent of the cost is made up of a local funding contribution which includes a private sector contribution of more than £5m, supplemented by West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) funding.
Spencer completed the first of the three stations encapsulated by the WYRG scheme, the new one-platform James Cook Hospital Station in Middlesbrough, in July 2014. Kirkstall Forge, the final station, is currently in design.
