Major rail engineering work as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) will take place throughout April, May and June, bringing significant disruption for passengers travelling between Huddersfield and Leeds.
As part of the programme, Huddersfield station will be closed to trains on weekends throughout April, with further major closures between Huddersfield and Leeds during May and June. These works are essential to delivering one of the most ambitious rail modernisation schemes currently underway in the UK.
The engineering activity will include track and drainage renewals, bridge upgrades, modernised signalling systems, and wide‑ranging station improvements across the corridor. TRU aims to deliver faster, more frequent, cleaner and more reliable services for communities across the North.
Passengers are being strongly advised to plan ahead and check their journey before travelling via nationalrail.co.uk, as timetables will be significantly altered.
Where possible, trains will continue to run — sometimes via diversionary routes — but journey times will vary. In some cases, passengers will need to use rail replacement buses for sections of their trip. Brighouse station will act as a key rail‑bus interchange for passengers travelling to or from Huddersfield during affected periods.
Industry Leaders Urge Patience as Upgrades Continue
Paul Sumner, TRU Senior Sponsor, said:
“The Transpennine Route Upgrade will bring major benefits, including more trains, more seats and faster, more reliable journeys across the North. These improvements, from electrifying the route to upgrading stations and modernising signalling, will help create a greener, more dependable railway that better serves local communities for years to come.”
Andrew Allwright, TRU Programme Delivery Lead for Northern, said:
“TRU has made a lot of progress on the route between Huddersfield and Leeds over the last few years, and will continue to do so over the next few months, delivering once in a generation upgrades for our customers that will improve accessibility at our stations, as well as improving the reliability of the railway and enabling future upgrade works to take place along that corridor.
“While these works are being carried out over the coming months, our services will be operating to an amended timetable and in some instances, rail replacement buses will be in operation.”
Image credit: Network Rail
