No cars or taxis are allowed into Brighouse Railway Station while it’s used as an alternative to Huddersfield which is closed until the end of September for major engineering works.

Rail operators say people arriving at Brighouse in cars and taxis must be dropped off on Railway Street which is on the opposite side of Huddersfield Road to the main station car park that’s been transformed into a temporary bus station.

It will be a five-minute walk to Platform 1 from there depending on how much traffic is on Huddersfield Road and how long it takes to cross.

Only people with blue badges will be allowed in the station car park and will have to be let in by station staff at its entrance.

The main station car park is on Birds Royd Lane but this is coned off to prevent parking and also has double yellow lines all along it.

Railway Street, which has a very limited number of spaces, is where people usually park to pick up passengers arriving on Platform 2 from Leeds or London or heading off towards Manchester.

Platform 1 next to the car park is for trains heading in the Leeds direction.

Brighouse now has up to six rail replacement buses arriving and leaving every hour from Huddersfield Railway Station, leaving every 15 minutes.

The Huddersfield station is closed until Monday September 29 for massive engineering works inside as part of the TransPennine Route Upgrade to provide an electrified train route across the Pennines.

This includes building longer platforms and removing the old railway bridge on John William Street and installing a new one.

The buses are ferrying around 3,000 passengers daily and extra trains are running on the line to meet the extra demand with 10 connecting rail services per hour.

There are roadworks on Huddersfield Road at Bradley Bar heading towards Brighouse which funnel traffic into one lane and can cause delays at peak periods so people are urged to leave plenty of time for their journeys to Brighouse Station.

A TRU spokesman said: “Anyone being dropped off or picked up at Brighouse should head to Railway Street where we have a designated area. There are also customer delivery managers on hand in this area to support and assist customers.

“Brighouse station has been transformed into a rail-to-bus interchange with extra staff on hand to guide and support customers throughout.

“A programme of this scale will cause some unavoidable disruption, but we’ve worked closely with Northern and TransPennine Express to keep people moving and reduce the impact wherever possible.

“This is one of the most important milestones for the TransPennine Route Upgrade so far as we deliver essential improvements that will mean faster, more reliable journeys for customers in the future while unlocking wider economic benefits for the north.”

The spokesman urged people to plan ahead at www.nationalrailenquiries.co.uk and allow extra time for their journeys.

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.

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