Thank you for raising Pontefract’s place in the Mayor’s West Yorkshire Local Transport Plan.

Pontefract is included within the wider strategic approach to transport across the Wakefield district and West Yorkshire as a whole. The Local Transport Plan is written at a regional level and covers all areas through the five local authorities - Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield - rather than listing every town individually. Pontefract therefore sits within the Wakefield district’s responsibilities and the Combined Authority’s remit for investment and planning.

More importantly, the plan sets out long term commitments designed to improve reliability, reduce journey times, and secure additional investment in the rail network across Yorkshire. This includes working with both North and South Yorkshire Mayors and central government to bring forward much needed improvements to local rail services.

On page 91 of the Local Transport Plan, we highlight that improving connectivity to the Five Towns area of Pontefract, Castleford, Knottingley, Normanton and Featherstone is a priority and you will find links to our supporting documents the West Yorkshire Rail Strategy and Rail Requirements at the top of the same page. We’re asking for interventions that would improve rail services by:

• Increasing the Sheffield-Pontefract-York to an hourly service.
• Extending the Leeds-Knottingley services to Goole.
• Introducing a new direct service between Leeds, Pontefract and Doncaster.

We completely appreciate your frustration about journey times to places like Hebden Bridge and York, as well as the age of rolling stock used by Northern across their network. These issues highlight exactly why the Combined Authority has identified rail investment as a priority - particularly improving service frequency, reliability, and the overall passenger experience. Northern, as part of their rolling stock strategy are planning to purchase new trains in the coming years to transform their services.

We also value your feedback on the cost of rail travel. With the introduction of the Railways Bill, there is now a clearer and more significant opportunity to push for the kind of fare reform we have long advocated. The Bill grants Great British Railways (GBR) primary responsibility for setting fares, which aligns with our long-standing call for a simpler, more consistent fare system. Unfortunately, the transition to Great British Railways will not happen immediately; the government has indicated that GBR will come into operation roughly 12 months after the Bill receives Royal Assent, meaning practical changes may take some time to filter through.

We welcome the fact that GBR will also bring together ticket retailing into a single platform and promote digital and contactless payments - this helps address the fragmentation and complexity we’ve raised previously. Crucially, the Bill also provides for a strengthened role for Combined Authorities, metro mayors, and other devolved leaders. As GBR develops its fare and ticketing strategy, it will be vital that it works in close partnership with us to ensure that fare-setting reflects regional travel patterns, cross-boundary journeys, as well as making multimodal (such as rail and bus) journeys more straightforward.

On behalf of the Combined Authority, we will continue to press for fare reforms that reduce complexity, improve accessibility, and deliver better value for passengers. We also welcome the creation of a strengthened passenger watchdog, which we expect to champion transparency and accountability in fare-setting.

Many thanks for your question. The Transpennine Route Upgrade team is currently exploring all available options for the future of the existing rail bridge once the new Baker Viaduct is constructed. While you may have been informed that the bridge could be “isolated,” no final decision has been made at this stage. A range of factors including safety, cost, structural integrity, and the potential community and connectivity benefits are all being carefully considered.

The Transpennine Route Upgrade team is continuing to work closely with Kirklees Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) to ensure that any feasible opportunities to support Active Travel are fully explored as part of this process.

Many thanks for your interest in West Yorkshire Mass Transit Phase One. Our route options consultation closed for feedback in September 2024 and since then, we've been busy working towards identifying a preferred route to connect Leeds and Bradford. Our Mass Transit team are considering all mass transit options at this point of the scheme design.

Mass Transit is part of our integrated Weaver Network which aims to make journeys better for everyone using a variety of travel modes, not just trams, and help create a better-connected region. We are using the feedback we gained from that consultation alongside further stakeholder and landowner engagement, environmental and technical survey work to help us identify a Phase one scheme. We will hold a consultation to gather your feedback on the preferred scheme for Phase one that will include the route, tram stops, depot, and park and ride facilities. 

You can sign up for updates here https://www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/improving-transport/mass-transit/ Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to find the section where you can register your interest to make sure you can give your feedback as part of that consultation.

Many thanks for your query. We are waiting to hear from the Government on what its revised plans are for Northern Powerhouse Rail and especially what is proposed to speed up journeys between Huddersfield and Bradford. Therefore, we are not sure if changes are required to the Leeds Road / Bradley Road rail tunnel as a new link may follow a different alignment towards Bradford.