Bradford Crossrail

Bradford Crossrail is an idea to link together Bradford's two railway stations, Bradford Forster Square and Bradford Interchange. Both these stations are truncated versions of former station sites, Bradford Forster Square station and Bradford Exchange. These stations were built in the nineteenth century by different railway companies with an individual, rather than a comprehensive plan for rail development in the city.

Linking the stations together was first suggested as early as 1845; however, an Act of Parliament granted to the Midland Railway on the 25 July 1896 permitted them to build a new branch railway from Royston in South Yorkshire to Queens Road north of Bradford. The West Riding Lines Act allowed for a tunnel underneath the east side of Bradford, bypassing Exchange station, with underground platforms at Forster Square and emerging out to serve Manningham and beyond. The tunnel was to be 5,000 yards (4,600 m) long.

Another proposal was put forward in 1911 and an enabling Act known as the "Bradford Through Lines Act" was passed. The area between the stations was heavily built-up with Victorian warehouses, shops and offices, so the 1911 plan would have involved a large amount of demolition. This plan called for a line starting near Low Moor with a 3,600 yards (3,300 m) tunnel with a girder bridge high above Forster Square. The start of World War I put a stop to these plans. The Midland eventually abandoned the plan and on the 30 September 1920, it sold all the buildings it had purchased for the scheme back to the Bradford Corporation for £295,000.

Another plan was to emerge in the 1950s when Bradford Corporation members discussed a circular rail service through Bradford using a new tunnel. This would see a train leaving Forster Square and calling at Manningham, Frizinghall, Shipley, Thackley, Idle, Eccleshill, Laisterdyke, St Dunstan's, Bradford Exchange and back into Forster Square (and vice versa). This would utilise the closed Shipley and Windhill Line. The underground tunnel was eventually rejected as the height difference between Exchange and Forster Square of 70 feet (21 m) made the gradient unacceptable.

By the late 1950s and early 1960s many of the Victorian buildings in central Bradford were demolished to make way for the urban vision of the then Bradford city engineer Stanley Wardley. Although the land between the two stations was cleared to make way for new office blocks and an urban ring road, the plans did not include a cross rail link. A slightly different vision did emerge in the 1970s when the Victorian Bradford Exchange station was demolished and a new integrated Bradford Interchange rail and bus station was built to the south of Bridge Street.

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