As essential upgrade work gets underway at Morley station, passengers are advised to check their travel plans ahead of making journeys between Huddersfield and Leeds from Saturday the 4th to Sunday the 12th of February.
Network Rail has been working alongside Northern and TransPennine Express in order to enable passengers to make their journeys and has put in place a diversionary route via Wakefield to make this possible. Some services travelling between Huddersfield/Brighouse and Leeds via Dewsbury will see rail replacement buses in operation allowing passengers to reach intermediate stations.
Changes are as follows:
For Northern services:
- Trains that normally run via Mirfield will see a diversion and run via Bradford Interchange, and therefore will not call at Morley, Batley, Dewsbury, Mirfield or Brighouse.
- Rail replacement buses will replace trains between Leeds and Halifax.
For TransPennine Express services:
- Services between Manchester and Hull will start and end at Leeds.
- Only one service will operate each hour between Liverpool and Newcastle (York on Saturday and Sunday only) and Scarborough.
- Rail replacement buses will be in operation for Huddersfield to Leeds services calling at Dewsbury
- Rail replacement buses will be in operation for Huddersfield to Leeds services calling at all stops
- Rail replacement buses will be in operation for Dewsbury to Leeds services calling at all stops
Passengers are advised to check their travel plans via National Rail or their train operator's website ahead of leaving for their journey.
The nine-day working period comes as part of the multi-billion-pound Transpennine Route Upgrade and will see foundations laid for the new and longer platforms alongside the realignment of tracks in the Morley station area. The work will make way for the brand-new accessible station which is set to open later in 2023 and is located approximately 75 metres further down the line from the current site. The new station will allow more reliable and longer train services with more capacity for passengers to operate.
Natalie Hewitt, Senior Sponsor for Transpennine Route Upgrade said: “Our work at Morley is just one part of a major programme to transform train travel in the north of England. A newly built, accessible station will help to make reliable, on-time journeys available for everybody.
“We know that people want to travel by train, so we've made sure that passengers can stay on track via a resilient diversion through Wakefield, and we've also worked with train operators to offer replacement buses too.”
Chris Nutton, Major Projects Director for TransPennine Express said: “As major upgrade work takes place for Morley station in February, as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade, there will be some service alterations for TransPennine Express services. Customers are advised to allow for additional time to travel and to check carefully for the latest service alterations before they travel on our website www.tpexpress.co.uk/travel-updates/changes-to-train-times; updates will also be available on our social media channels. In addition, extra support will be available for customers from Customer Delivery Managers who will be on hand to assist customers with their journeys.”
Rob Warnes, Strategic Development Director for Northern said: “We'd like to thank our customers for their patience whilst Morley station is closed for this work. During this closure, the foundations are quite literally being laid to enable us to bring better train services and improved accessibility for everybody using the station. We're working hard to keep everybody moving whilst the station is closed, with plenty of colleagues on hand to help throughout. Our advice to our customers is to check before they travel.”
The vast Transpennine Route Upgrade project will revolutionise rail travel throughout the north of England by completing the full electrification of the railway between Manchester and York whilst seeing major improvements made to stations on the route and the upgrade of essential infrastructure including a number of bridges and level crossings.
