NEW STATIONS at Low Moor in West Yorkshire and Ilkeston in Derbyshire opened on Sunday 2 April, both re-openings of stations closed in the 1960s.
Low Moor, located between Bradford and Halifax, is the third new station to open in West Yorkshire in 14 months, following Apperley Bridge and Kirkstall Forge. Over 500,000 passengers per year are expected to use the £10.8 million station, which is served by hourly Northern workings between Leeds and Huddersfield via Brighouse and by Grand Central’s services between London King’s Cross and Bradford Interchange, which operate four times per day.
The station is located close to Junction 26 of the M62 motorway and offers 120 free car parking spaces. Funding has come from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council and Network Rail. The original Low Moor station closed in June 1965.
Ilkeston’s £10 million station was built by Network Rail and contractor Galliford Try in a project led by Derbyshire County Council. It stands on the site of the original Ilkeston Junction and Cossall station, which closed on 2 January 1967. The Council says the opening means the town is no longer the largest in Britain on a passenger railway line without a station.
East Midlands Trains manages the station, although the principal services to call are Northern’s hourly Nottingham to Leeds workings. These will be supplemented by three of EMT’s Liverpool to Norwich workings in each direction on Mondays to Saturdays and two on Sundays. Around 160,000 people are expected to use the station in its first year. The station offers parking for 90 cars on the east side of the tracks plus additional spaces for disabled drivers, motorcycles and bicycles and a taxi rank and drop-off point on the west side. The bulk of funding (£6.7 million) came from the Department for Transport, with contributions from Derbyshire County Council and Nottingham Housing Market Area.
