Almost 300 people have signed a petition calling for a bus link to Baildon railway station which is a 20-minute walk from the village centre.

Commuters travelling from the station say they are marooned if services fail to run.

And they reckon they virtually need hiking boots to get to and from home to catch a train.

Today Metro said it had received the 279-signature petition and it would be considered in the coming year.

The battle for buses is part of Baildon Residents' Railway Manifesto which calls for improvements at Baildon station.

Copies have now gone into village shops as traders join the mounting campaign.

The families are asking Metro for two hopper buses called the BAILRAIL to run continuously round the village to meet every train at Baildon station.

They would run from Shipley Glen, along Lucy Hall Drive via Somerset Avenue, to the village centre, Jenny Lane and into the station yard.

Organiser John Anderson of Gillbeck Close, Baildon, said it would also cut the village's major congestion problems because 78 of the people who had signed did not use the train but would if there was an easy way of getting to and from the station.

He said: "Passengers would catch trains instead of sitting in their cars in traffic jams in Baildon. The bus would also pass many village shops and be convenient for shoppers as well as passengers."

Hairdresser Nicola Orwin, who has three teenage sons - all too young to drive - said they would use the train if they had transport to the station.

"Everyone who has signed the petition says the same. It's really badly needed," she said.

A Metro spokesman said: "There are a number of things we want to look at and investigate."

T&A Opinion

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.