Call for late night Leeds trains

12:52pm Friday 4th April 2008

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A campaign is gathering steam for a late night train service between Leeds and Skipton.

An internet petition on the Prime Minister's website has so far received more than 300 signatures and nearly 2,500 people have joined a group supporting a late night service on popular social networking site Facebook.

�We thought there might be some demand, but we never knew it would be so high. Now we want as many people as possible to sign the petition.�

Martin Chalk

Campaigners want two late night weekend services returning from Leeds to Skipton, at 1.30am and 3am.

Currently, the last train back to Skipton leaves Leeds at 11.18pm and it is claimed there is a significant demand for later trains.

The petition reads: "Many people from up and down the Skipton train line enjoy a good night out in Leeds every Friday and Saturday night. The only trouble is the night has to be cut short to catch the last train back."

It adds that the aim of the petition is to try to convince the Government and the train companies that there is a high demand for two late night trains back along the Skipton line.

Martin Chalk, 27, of Bingley, started the campaign following a night out in Leeds last year.

He attended a gig with friends, but had to leave the concert early to catch the last train home.

"We just found it ridiculous. The train was really busy too; it was jam-packed. That was when we started the group and the petition followed on from that."

Mr Chalk said he had been surprised by how big the response had been.

"We thought there might be some demand, but we never knew it would be so high. Now we want as many people as possible to sign the petition."

A spokesman for Northern Rail, which operates the service, said: "Where there is a demand for an increase in services, it's always something to look at. One of the things you have to be careful of is that quite often evenings are used for engineering work.

"There's a whole host of issues to look at, such as funding and the availability of rolling stock. One of the first things to consider is the demand and whether there's a significant cost."

Tim Calow, chairman of the Aire Valley Rail Users Group, said that later services along the Aire Valley route were one of his group's long-term objectives.

"Northern Rail's track access agreement doesn't include running trains between midnight and 6am and it would be a complicated process to change it.

"One possible, more practical solution that we've looked at in the past is a late night bus service that calls at all the railway stations on the route. There are night buses in Leeds on some routes and this would be a natural extension of that."

Mr Chalk said he would back a bus service as a possible alternative to the proposed trains.

"In London there are regular bus services all night, I don't see why that couldn't happen here."

The online petition can be found at: petitions.pm.gov.uk/Skipton-Train