New research has revealed that 22 railway stations have been re-opened across West Yorkshire since the infamous Beeching cuts of the 1960s.

A newly-published book, produced by the Railfuture campaign group, contains details of 350 stations that have been added to the UK rail network in the last 50 years.

Many stations in the Bradford district, including Baildon, Frizinghall and Saltaire, are included in the book, entitled Britain’s Growing Railway.

Railfuture, a national voluntary organisation, is pushing for further improvements to rail services, including even more new stations, further electrification of key routes and better rolling stock.

Metro, the West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority, has been involved in helping to re-open many of the stations across the county.

Kieran Preston, Metro’s director general, said: “Passenger numbers on the West Yorkshire network have grown phenomenally and a significant part of this growth is due to the work that Metro has carried out to re-open stations and develop new ones.

“This work continues today and we are making progress on developing new stations at Low Moor, Apperley Bridge, Kirkstall Forge and Horsforth Woodside, as well as pressing for the additional trains that will serve them.”

One of the stations that Metro helped to reopen was Bramley, which came back into use in 1983 to serve passengers travelling between Bradford and Leeds on the Caldervale line. The nearby station of New Pudsey, paid for at the time by British Rail, is another station opened up in recent decades.

A number of stations on the Airedale line have also reopened, including Baildon (1973), Cononley (1988), Crossflatts (1982), Saltaire (1984) and Steeton & Silsden (1990).

Another town in the area to have benefited from the resurgence in the number of rail stations is Brighouse. The original station closed in 1970, but reopened in 2000 to coincide with the return of passenger train services to the Huddersfield-Halifax line.