A passenger watchdog is urging rail chiefs to keep all commuter services through Baildon and the Aire Valley running as a top priority during major improvements to a railway station.

The work due to start at Leeds this September and finish in 2001 will cause huge disruption across the Bradford district through changes to services linked with Leeds.

But the Wharfedale Rail Users Group - covering stations including Baildon, Ilkley, Shipley, Menston and Bradford - said today the maintenance of the full service should be a top priority.

The group warns in a newsletter which it is distributing this week of the implications for the public.

Chairman Derrick Joanes said: "Obviously we welcome the upgrading of the station but we are concerned about the scale of disruptions and the effect it could have on many hundreds of people."

And Bradford Councillor Latif Darr, chairman of West Yorkshire Passenger Consultative Comm-ittee, also warned it would be a "disaster" if services collapsed during the multi-million pound overhaul.

Some of the routes seriously affected will see a reduction in the number of trains serving Airedale and Wharfedale mainly from July to December 2000; no services between Leeds and Bradford but alternative services to Bradford Forster Square from January to May 20001 and a cut in the number of trains on Bradford lines from September to December 2001.

The biggest overhaul of the railway infrastructure in Leeds since the 1960s will include increasing the western approach lines from four to six tracks and more new platforms.

A spokesman from GNER, operators of the London services to and from Bradford, said they were having top level talks with Railtrack and Northern Spirit next month when the situation would be more clear.

"But we hope to maintain as nor- mal a service as possible," he added.

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