THE Mayor of Kirklees has welcomed Grand Central’s announcement that from December an additional service will be added each afternoon on their successful West Yorkshire route.

Clr Martyn Bolt campaigned for the service to stop at Mirfield station – a campaign which has allowed many thousands of travellers to access a London service from within Kirklees.

The change means there will be four daily services from Bradford to King’s Cross instead of three.

These stop at Brighouse and Mirfield.

Clr Bolt said: “Having been told by Kirklees officers that it was not feasible, I met with senior management at Grand Central, in Mirfield and they were impressed by the potential of an additional stop and worked to make this happen.

“An additional service each day will now make those journeys more accessible to Kirklees travellers.”

Grand Central managing director, Richard McClean, said: “We have now confirmed details of the improved timetable for December 2013 which will give us an additional service on the West Yorkshire route each day.

“This will see Grand Central operating four trains a day between London and Bradford alongside five trains a day between London and Sunderland.

“We have been working on this for several years already, so it is fantastic to get to this important threshold.”

Clr Bolt now believes Kirklees Council, Metro and others should revisit their refusal to invest in improved car parking in Mirfield and deliver a suitable rail gateway to Kirklees for train travellers.