Over the years we’ve become used to reporting on how this city has found some tram tracks under the road during works and removed them, or reburied them, ignoring the history of what they’ve discovered. But in Bradford it’s a different story as they have now relaid some old tram tracks which were found last year.
The tracks were found on Bridge Street in Bradford City Centre during works in spring 2024 with, at the time, the City Council saying it was a bit of a surprise as they believed they had been removed in previous redevelopment works. As it so often the case the tracks were removed but instead of heading off for scrap they have restored and cleaned and will now be put back down as part of a pedestrianisation scheme.
The tracks are now back where they once stood under the road surface, but for all to see. The £45 million scheme is also seeing new landscaping outside the St George’s Hall to make it an attractive area for all.
With any luck these won’t be the only tram tracks seen in and around Bradford City Centre in the coming years. Plans continue to be progressed for the West Yorkshire Mass Transit system with the first phase set to link Bradford with its neighbouring city of Leeds.
Excellent news. I just wish Douglas Corporation/DOI had not removed the short piece of
cable tramway track at the bottom of Victoria Street by The Jubilee Clock, in The IOM!
There is another short length of track still visible in Bradford at the Halifax Road/Netherlands Avenue junction. Double track crosses Netherlands Avenue on the line of a roadside reservation. I think there might also be some within the confines of the site of Thornbury depot, there was a couole of years ago, but the section on which preserved car 104 used to run has gone.
There are still Salford Corporation tracks in place at the side of the old Weaste Depot. Metrolink cars run past them, at right angles.