Railway lines from Halifax, Queensbury, Wakefield and Leeds met south of the city centre with services terminating in the station.

[12] The s-shaped link between Mill Lane Junction and Hammerton Street was an uphill gradient of 1 in 49 in a cutting 60 feet (18 m) deep in places.

[16] On 16 January 1871, a train descending from Low Moor through Bowling Tunnel, arrived at Exchange station going too fast, with one witness stating that he could see sparks coming from the brake blocks on the engine wheels.

4 lines) and mounted up the buffer blocks crushing a man between the engine and the back wall of the station.

He died soon afterward, whilst the fireman was fatally injured when he jumped from the train and had his ribs punctured by a "switch handle".

[17][18] The 1888 expansion saw the station furnished with 10 platforms, and an overall glass roof in two sections, each spanning 100 feet (30 m) in width designed by William Hunt, an L&YR engineer.

[25] The L&YR operated their own larger 5-road large warehouse on the other side of Bridge Street, which opened in 1884 before the 1888 renovations,[24][26] and retained ownership of the station completely.

[35] From opening, the Lancashire & Yorkshire railway services were sending trains up and down the Spen Valley line between Low Moor and Mirfield.

[note 5] Some state that the station merely moved as it retained its name of Exchange, not becoming Bradford Interchange until a later date (which is also disputed as to when that name change occurred).

Biddle described the station as having a "..short, straight, double-arched roof, notable for its fan-like glazing bars in the gables, and delicate iron whorls and curves in the brackets.

"[47] The demolition of Bradford Exchange station, along with the Euston Arch, Glasgow St Enoch, and the Crumlin Viaduct, was listed by Binney and Pearce as putting "British Rail into its own category of vandal".