Keighley & Worth Valley commuter rail service idea is scrapped

Following five years of debate, councillors on a committee who have been investigating the idea say they have accepted that there is not enough political will to make the project work.

Councillor John Huxley, chairman of the Worth Valley Joint Transport Committee, which includes councillors from Haworth, Oxenhope and Keighley parish and town councils, said: “We, in conjunction with management at K&WVR have conducted exhaustive enquiries into the viability of the introduction of a community rail service to the route.

“In 2009 we, together with Metro and Bradford Council, funded a study by the Arup Partnership. While that concluded that such services were operationally entirely possible they would need to be subsidised.

“Last January we met the Railway, the Integrated Transport Authority (ITA) and Bradford Council to discuss the situation and the results of a further study undertaken by Metro into the project.

“It was made quite clear to us by the ITA officers and Bradford Council that they would not recommend the level of subsidy the study concluded would be required to deliver the service.

“Given that we as local councils are not blessed with the kind of funds necessary to pursue the project on our own behalf, we’ve reluctantly concluded that, for the moment at least, there is no point in pursuing the project any further.

“We note that the Conservative Group of Bradford Council has decided that there is some political mileage in the project, and we look forward with interest to see if they can persuade the ITA there is a good case for a subsidy.”

Coun Huxley added that he and his council colleagues had worked productively with the K&WVR, and fully understood this organisation’s position of not being able to fund such a project on its own behalf. “We’ve taken the idea as far as we can, and without the necessary funding from regional or central government we’re not able to advance the concept any further,” he said.