An average of 170 to 180 people a day have been using the new Kirkstall Forge Station, which opened last month.
Kirkstall Forge developers CEG told a meeting of the Bramley and Stanningley Community Forum last night that more people were walking to the station than driving.
CEG Commercial manager Victoria Walker said there were currently 40-50 cars a day using the station car park, which has a capacity of more than 400:
“We’d like to see a lot more people currently driving down the congested A65 to actually come off the road and use it. It only takes six to 11 minutes, depending on the service, to get into Leeds.”
She said CEG were ‘lobbying hard’ to get a more regular train service every 15 minutes at the station, which currently has one train per hour calling in each direction, with additional services during peak hours. Services, she said, would increase over time.
Ms Walker said that moving forward there are also plans for a small bus interchange to be based outside the station.
Kirkstall Forge, along with was part of a £15.9m Rail Growth Package, approved by the Department of Transport in May 2014. Nearly 400 passengers a day are using Apperley Bridge Station, according to reports in the T&A.
Concerns were expressed by some forum members about a long unlit walk to Kirkstall Forge from the Bramley side of the valley. The possibility of installing lighting was discussed.
Kirkstall Forge from karl beadle on Vimeo.
Road names
The community meeting also heard two of the roads at the new development have been named. For the road surrounding the new office building, Great Exhibition Way was chosen as a reference to the items that Kirkstall Forge manufactured and exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851.
The items in the exhibition included railway wheels and axles, axletrees for carriages, phaetons, omnibuses, cabs, drays, and other vehicles (made from best double-faggoted Kirkstall iron) and a self-acting regulating damper for high-pressure boiler.
Butler Road will probably be the name of the road into the north-west end of the site. This road joins Abbey Road by the traffic lights near Hawksworth Road. Beecroft and Butler were the names of two partners who were responsible for developing industrial use on the site in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Ms Walker said the final decision to sign off the names was yet to be made but asked forum members to come up with ideas for future roads that reflected the history in the area.
Other road names may reference the monks of Kirkstall Abbey, who first developed the site in the 12th century.
1 Kirkstall Forge
Ms Walker said work on the seven-storey 1 Kirkstall Forge office building was continuing, ahead of its opening in Autumn 2017. Vehicle outsourcing company Zenith will occupy the building, alongside CEG, and there are plans for a deli/restaurant on the ground floor.
The £400m scheme ultimately promises to deliver 1,050 homes, 300,000 sq ft of offices and 100,000 sq ft of retail, leisure and community space at Kirkstall Forge.