Huddersfield Line Wakefield connection — Trains towards Wakefield, Castleford and York
for all services to Slaithwaite, Marsden and stations to Stalybridge and Manchester Piccadilly or Victoria.
for express services via Dewsbury and Leeds and stopping trains calling at Deighton, Mirfield, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury, Batley, Morley and Cottingley.
for services from Huddersfield to Halifax and Bradford or if wishing to travel to the upper Calder Valley.
Trains towards Wakefield, Castleford and York
☉ Stalybridge
˧ Mossley
˧ Greenfield
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˧
☉
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☉ Mirfield
☉ Wakefield Kirkgate
˧ Normanton
☉ Castleford
☉ York
TransPennine Express took over the route previously operated by Northern between Huddersfield and Castleford from the December 2023 timetable, successfully extending it following improvements at Castleford station to provide direct services between the Wakefield district and Manchester and the Wakefield district and York.
The Monday to Saturday service is an extension of the Manchester Piccadilly to Huddersfield stopping service. In the June - December 2024 timetable that hourly service is extended every two hours during daytime via Wakefield to York. That is an improvement on the four peak-time services each day of the previous timetable.
There is also an early morning service starting at Wakefield Kirkgate for Manchester Piccadilly and a late evening service from Manchester Piccadilly to Wakefield Kirkgate, that allowing a journey back to Wakefield after an evening in Huddersfield.
The service considerably improves east-west journey times to and from the stations in the Wakefield district.
For journeys from Huddersfield as far as York the trains will take just a few minutes longer than express journeys via Leeds, mainly because of more stops, but the trains can offer less crowded journeys between Huddersfield and York than services operating via Leeds at peak times.
From Huddersfield to Wakefield Kirkgate the journey time is about 22 minutes, compared with a fastest 46 minutes on a detour to change at Leeds, although that is still considerably faster than bus journeys from Huddersfield to Wakefield which take about an hour-and-a-quarter.
There is no service on this route on a Sunday.
There are also a small number of opportunities during the day to reach Wakefield from Huddersfield through a change to one of the four-a-day London-bound Grand Central services at either Brighouse or Mirfield. However, there is not always a good connection time with these trains.
Useful web links
Metro West Yorkshire passenger transport authority Metro's website (external link)
TransPennine Route Upgrade TransPennine Route Upgrade upcoming closures (external link)
National Rail National Rail Enquiries and journey planner (external link)