I’d like to propose for the Airedale and Wharefdale lines to be built, based in the modern era. The route itself offers lots of journey opportunities, with multiple start and end points. Proposed era: 2010 - 2021 Operators: Serco Northern or Arriva Northern depending on year Rolling Stock: Class 333, Class 322, Class 158, Class 331 Routes & Mileage: Leeds - Skipton: 26 miles/45 minutes Leeds - Ilkley: 16 miles/30 minutes Leeds - Bradford Forster Square: 13 miles/25 minutes Bradford Forster Square - Skipton: 18 miles/40 minutes Bradford Forster Square - Ilkley: 13 miles/35 minutes Route Map:
I do think this would be a nice little network, Cathcart-esque, with plenty of services and good variety of rolling stock (EMUs, DMUs and quite a bit of freight also).
Looks like a nice rural network. Surprised that it's still intact, given the Beeching cuts. By the way, I noticed the logo. Is this a fairly current map?
Would love this route and buy it. They could do olr northern branding because it is owned by the government.
The route shown is still the same, yes. I believe the logo is just an overlay over the map, and doesn’t mean it’s old as in BR era. The lines were electrified in the mid to late 90s.
The Ilkley line was actually intended to close in the Beeching Report but there was fierce local opposition so the line south of Ilkley was saved, though the line between Ilkley and Skipton was still closed. All local stations on the Aire Valley were also closed, with only stations serving the towns remaining. Mass house building in the area since the 60s and a huge increase in commuting to Leeds has seen the lines been revived with many of the closed stations being reopened and now have a frequent service, with up to 10tph into Leeds from the Airedale and Wharfedale Lines in the morning peak.
The BR Logo is on every Map of the Wikipedia Pages of the British Routes, they have that on the WCML Map, ECML Map and so on.
Yes. The 158 operates the long distance Leeds to Carlisle services. Past Skipton, the line isn't electrified. Other than that, all other services are operated by EMU's.