A short rail journey today, from Shipley back into Bradford Forster Square. It’s not possible to go to Shipley to Bradford Interchange without taking a circuitous route via Leeds or something, as the two Bradford railway stations aren’t connected.

The delights of Shipley railway station’s underground tunnels.

They’re not very decadent, but at least everything is clearly signed.

Shipley’s railway station, this is in a different part of the complex to where I left from last week.

Clicking on this image makes it larger and it’s the Network Rail map of the railway station. Platform 5 is on the left, platforms 3 and 4 at the base and platforms 1 and 2 at the top. Dead simple….

Here’s the Northern Trains Thunderbolt speeding into the station.

The seating and it was busier than this, but I took the photos when disembarking. There were no ticket checks, although there was a passenger watching TikTok videos loudly, but I can manage to ignore those when the rail journey only lasts for a few minutes.

Into Bradford Forster railway station, which has ticket barriers and staff members available to help customers (or at least check they’ve got tickets which I think is the priority here). The journey took all of seven minutes, arriving on time when it should have done.

Walking to the road, that building to the left is where the old railway station used to stand until the early 1990s, when it was known as Bradford Midland.

The current railway station is located where School Street is now located, with Bradford Midland having been entirely demolished. That was a mistake as far as I can see, the facilities at Forster Square are inadequate and there needs to be a bigger railway station here. It will though mean demolishing the HMRC building that’s in the way.

My time in Huddersfield was up, so I waved farewell to Harold Wilson and went into the railway station, slightly saddened that I was leaving too early to pop into the King’s Head or the Head of Steam (both pubs at the railway station) for one more quick visit. This rail journey cost just over £8, which was relatively high for a direct train journey of under one hour, based on prices that I’ve been paying recently. The anytime single meant that I could break my journey anywhere along the route, although nowhere initially sprang to my mind. I only realised too late that I could have got off at a stop near Holmfirth and walked there, but I’ll remember that for another occasion.

Huddersfield railway station is probably going to be knocked down soon, or at least this rickety old bit at the back is. The frontage of the railway station is one of the finest in the country from the Victorian period when it was constructed, but everything else is tired, inefficient and in need of replacement. The matter is currently with Grant Shapps, which doesn’t entirely fill me with confidence, but perhaps that’s being unfair.

This is platform 2, which it took me a little while to find. It’s illogically numbered due to historic reasons, but it’s actually the platform nearest to the station building, even though logically that should be platform 1 (which is behind it in the above photo).

The service operates on the Penistone Line, which opened in 1850 and meanders through some fairly small settlements before going through Barnsley and onto Sheffield. There’s apparently a real ale trail which often takes place along the line, which sounds rather lovely (although probably isn’t, it’s probably packed with people feeling ill, but I digress).

The situation I found myself in was a little odd. The train from Sheffield rolled in and it’s the only service that departs from Platform 2, so it was clearly the train going back again to Sheffield. The driver left the doors open and popped into the railway station building, so I assumed that everyone waiting would get on. They didn’t. I faffed about a bit on the platform looking awkward and confused, before deciding that I’d be brave and climb on board. I was half expecting the damn train thing to drive off and end up at Torquay or something if I’m being honest. One person followed me on, also looking confused. The driver came back a few minutes later and a customer asked him if they could board. He also looked confused, as if permission was needed to get on a train which had the doors open. Perhaps they’re just very polite people in Huddersfield…..

Also, the seating set-up is completely pointless (not that I want to start moaning about something else), as three people don’t fit sitting side by side on those seats (well, usually don’t). They’d be far better off converting those to the same as most other rail companies, two seats one side of the aisle and two seats the other side. Anyway, the train service wasn’t that busy, so I didn’t have a problem getting a block of seats to myself.

It’s not going to win any photography awards, but there were some scenic landscapes, and a fair few tunnels, along the journey. The guard seemed helpful, but there was no checking of tickets going on at any stage. They must be trusting folk.

Arriving on time into Barnsley.

This is Barnsley Interchange railway station, constructed a few years ago to try and merge the town’s rail and bus operations. What it meant for me was the chance to explore Barnsley, a town that I’ve never been to before. As an aside, I kept hearing Michael Parkinson’s voice in my mind (not all day, just occasionally, I’m not yet entirely losing the plot) who is the most famous Barnsley resident that I know. I don’t know many others, just Arthur Scargill and Dickie Bird, who statue I might go and have a little look at. Anyway, I digress.

My rail journey today was from Shipley to Huddersfield, which isn’t an expensive one, coming in at £6.50 for the two services, a Northern Rail from Shipley to Leeds and a TransPennine Express from Leeds to Huddersfield.

It takes a little bit of working out to find the appropriate platform at Shipley railway station.

Wikipedia tells me that there are only two triangular railway stations left in the country, this one and Earlestown on Merseyside. I’m not entirely sure how interesting a fact that is, but there we go.

That’s how the situation evolved.

A handy little waiting room.

The Northern train which had come from Skipton, with Shipley being the final stop before Leeds. This is a horrible train (or the interior, the actual train is fine), the seating isn’t large enough, but more about that another time when I get around to writing about when I went from Leicester to Bradford (when I took photos). It’s really not a good look for a rail company, and the Government managed Northern Trains (no longer Northern Rail, just to confuse things) would do well to just take half the seats out and dump them in a heap somewhere, as a large number of seats are unuseable with the current set-up. Anyway, I digress and it didn’t much matter as I found a seat at the end of the carriage.

Here we are in Leeds.

There’s the TransPennine Express service from Leeds to Manchester, which was operating at well over its seating capacity, meaning standing room only. As the journey from Leeds to Huddersfield is only 17 minutes, I decided just to stand near to the end of the carriage, but I felt sorry for those unable to be seated who were going all the way to Manchester. There was a friendly guy who was passing around sweets (which were sealed) to customers in his vicinity, which I don’t think was a mass poisoning exercise (can’t be too careful). I hope not anyway, I had a Wispa.

And safely into Huddersfield, with hoards more people trying to get on (mostly not in the photo). This is clearly a heavily congested route, I’m not sure if there are usually this many problems with a lack of seating. Customers would have got away without paying for a ticket though on this route, there were no ticket checks and there are no barriers at Shipley and the barriers at Huddersfield weren’t in operation.

The exterior of Huddersfield railway station, and a statue of the former Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

As for this journey, convenient and on-time as it was, it’s not an ideal set-up from the rail companies who seem to be struggling to deal with the number of passengers wanting to use their services. Time perhaps for the Government to speed up more investment in the rail network to get more services running. Anyway, I digress….