Bradford Crossrail

These stations were built in the nineteenth century by different railway companies with an individual, rather than a comprehensive plan for rail development in the city.

The West Riding Lines Act allowed for a tunnel underneath the east side of Bradford, bypassing Exchange station, with underground platforms at Forster Square and emerging out to serve Manningham and beyond.

[4] The area between the stations was heavily built-up with Victorian warehouses, shops and offices, so the 1911 plan would have involved a large amount of demolition.

This plan called for a line starting near Low Moor with a 3,600 yards (3,300 m) tunnel with a girder bridge high above Forster Square.

The Midland eventually abandoned the plan and on the 30 September 1920, it sold all the buildings it had purchased for the scheme back to the Bradford Corporation for £295,000.

The tunnel was eventually rejected as the height difference between Exchange and Forster Square of 70 feet (21 m) made the gradient unacceptable.

[8] Although the land between the two stations was cleared to make way for new office blocks and an urban ring road, the plans did not include a cross rail link.

Today, even with the clearance of most of the land there is no official plan by either the Bradford Council or the Westfield Group to develop a link.

Although Westfield did design and fund the new Shepherd's Bush station as part of their West London shopping development.