Platforms at Kirkstall Forge will be extended to cater for longer six-car trains, Leeds City Council planners have decided.
Network Rail will extend both platforms by 48 metres at their western end as train operator Northern is looking to increase seating capacity on some of its services.
Council planning officers approved the proposals as they said they met national planning policy and that the extensions would visually fit in with the existing platforms.
There had been two objections to the planning application, with concerns over insufficient car parking at the station. They said car parking would need to be increased to support increased station usage.
But Kirkstall Forge developers CEG, who this week said development work would soon restart at the site following Covid pandemic and concerns over inflation, backed the platform extensions as it would support the development of the wider site.
A letter from Network Rail accompanying the application had said: “Northern Trains are keen to introduce further seating capacity along the Airedale and Wharfedale routes and to cater for this increased length of train it is necessary to lengthen the current platforms at the stations by varying degrees. The length of platform to accommodate six-car trains is 143 metres.
“The current operational length of both platforms is 100 metres. Therefore, we propose to extend both platforms by 48 metres – both at the western end of the station (in the direction of Shipley). A secondary means of escape from Platform 2 will also be provided, running along the rear of the proposed extension back to the existing platform egress to Bramley Woods.”
The plans can be viewed in full here.
The station was opened on 19 June 2016, at a cost of £16 million.
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