Commuters are set to benefit from a major cash injection for Shipley's Park and Ride scheme to stop it becoming a victim of its own success.

Members of West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority, who meet tomorrow, are expected to approve a £35,000 grant to expand facilities for passengers using Shipley station.

The grant, which would be matched by another £35,000 from train operator Northern Spirit, would pay for more car parking spaces at the station which cannot cope with the numbers of cars being left there at present.

A report to the meeting says the current situation leads to drivers leaving their cars on the access road to the station and elsewhere in the vicinity.

An additional 60 spaces would be created on a landscaped area adjacent to the existing car park and by reorganising the present car spaces with new markings.

The existing blue butterfly meadow near the station would not be safeguarded under the new scheme.

In a recent survey Metro, the operational arm of the WYPTA, estimated that 184 vehicles used the car park on a daily basis between Monday and Friday but only 122 official spaces were available for commuters.

A Metro spokesman said: "This is extremely good news for people who use the park and ride. It is well used and successful but we have identified a need for additional car parking spaces. Cars have been parked along the approach road to the station clogging up the area around the station. Hopefully this will help encourage people to use the train rather than the roads."

Tim Calow, chairman of the Aire Valley Rail User Group, said: "Certainly the car parking at Shipley has been a problem. The car park is full by 9am with people parking their cars and then catching trains to Leeds or Bradford.

"We are very keen to see more people using the Aire Valley services and expanding the park-and-ride facilities like this is a step in the right direction.

"But parking at a station has got to be part of a wider integrated transport policy. We are looking for other measures to be expanded like secure bicycle parking and better bus connections into stations."

Also being considered at the meeting is a £70,000 scheme to provide passenger information screens at a number of stations on the Aire Valley and Wharfe Valley lines. Among the stations in line for screens are Saltaire, Crossflatts, Steeton, Silsden, Baildon and Ben Rhydding.

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