Wortley Curve: Disused Leeds rail line to go up for auction at £15k as calls made for leaders to save route

The Wortley Curve, that connected the Wakefield to Leeds line to the Bradford to Leeds line, closed in 1985 and will go under the hammer at an online auction later this month with a £15,000 guide price.

But concern has been raised over the planned sale by the English Regional Transport Association, which has written to West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Bradford and Leeds City Councils urging them to step in to save the route.

In a letter shared with the Yorkshire Evening Post, the group said: “The ERTA, believes as a strategic rail route the link is worth much more to the economy of West Yorkshire than £15,000.

“Today we have wrote to the Mayor of West Yorkshire, the CEO’s of both Bradford and Leeds City Councils asking them to save the route. We have also written to the Prime Minister asking him to make good on the promise he made at the Conservative Party Conference of investing in Transport Projects here in the North after cancelling HS2.”

There have been calls in recent years for the line to be re-instated, as it would allow trains to travel from Bradford to Wakefield without having to pass through Leeds central station.

The land, which currently belongs to Railway Paths Ltd, will officially go under the hammer on January 30 and the online auction listing, by Pugh auctioneers, describes the three acre stretch of land as “suitable for a variety of different uses.”