Huddersfield line
The Huddersfield Line is the name given to one of the rail services in the West Yorkshire Metro area of northern England: it is one of the busiest on the Metro network. Local services are operated by Northern Rail. The Line connects Leeds, Wakefield Westgate and Huddersfield with Manchester (Victoria), Manchester Airport and Liverpool. TransPennine Express services operate over the route.
The route
History
At the time of the 1923 Grouping most of the route followed by the line was over London and North Western Railway (LNWR) metals; the exception being a short stretch near Deighton, which was the property of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR). Thge first section of the line, between Huddersfield and Stalybridge, was opened by the Manchester, Stockport and Leeds Railway on 1 August 1849. The line became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway after 1948.
General notes
The route travels SSW from Leeds through Dewsbury; after a short westward stretch through Mirfield (where it runs on the ex-L&YR section), it continues SE through Huddersfield, using the River Colne valley to its headwaters; the long tunnel at Marsden crosses under the watershed; and the majority of the run down to Manchester is in the Tame valley. After Manchester, the line reaches the Liverpool and Manchester Railway line over Chat Moss to Liverpool.
Route details
Leeds-Huddersfield
This is the section over which West Yorkshire MetroCards are available; many of the places served no longer have rail facilities:
- Leeds City station
- Copley Hill
- Cottingley (Leeds) (?new station)
- [[Farnley & Wortley
- Churwell
- Morley
- Batley
- Staincliffe & Batley Carr
- Dewsbury: was named Dewsbury (Wellington Road)
- Ravensthorpe was named Ravensthorpe and Thornhill
- here is Dewsbury Junction with the L&YR. Trains from Wakefield (Westgate and Kirkgate railway stations join the Huddersfield Line here, giving connections from the Pontefract, Hallam and Wakefield Lines.
- Mirfield L&YR junctions here to [[Low Moor}} (closed) and Halifax (the Caldervale Line): the service from the Huddersfield Line operates to Brighouse
- Hooton Lodge/Heckmondwike Junctions return the route to the ex-LNWR line
- Bradley
- Deighton
- Huddersfield: served by the Caldervale and Penistone Line lines. The station here was LNWR/L&YR joint owned.
Huddersfield-Manchester
- here is Springwood Tunnel and Springwood Junction for the trains on the Penistone Line
- Longwood and Milnsbridge
- Golcar
- Slaithwaite
- Marsden
- here is Standedge Tunnel : three parallel tunnels, two single-line, one double 5340 yds (4806m) in length
- Diggle
- Diggle Junction with lines to Oldham and Stalybridge via Friezland
- Saddleworth
- Greenfield
- Mossley
- Stalybridge
- Ashton-under-Lyne
- Manchester Victoria