Huddersfield Line

The Huddersfield Line is the name given to one of the busiest rail services on the West Yorkshire MetroTrain network in Northern England. Local services are operated by Northern Rail with longer distance services operated by TransPennine Express. The line connects Leeds and Huddersfield with Manchester (Victoria & Piccadilly), Manchester Airport and Liverpool.

The route travels SSW from Leeds through Dewsbury. After a short westward stretch through Mirfield (where it runs on the ex-L&YR section), it continues SW through Huddersfield, using the River Colne valley to its headwaters. The long Standedge Tunnel just after Marsden crosses under the watershed and the majority of the run down to Manchester is in the Tame valley. After Manchester, the line reaches the Liverpool and Manchester Railway line over Chat Moss to Liverpool.

The Government announced in November 2011 that this route would be electrified, and electrification is currently scheduled to be completed by 2022.

History

Huddersfield

Coordinates: 53°38′42″N 1°46′47″W / 53.6450°N 1.7798°W / 53.6450; -1.7798

Huddersfield (ⁱ/ˈhʌdərzˌfiːld/,local /ˈhʊdəzˌfiːld/) is a large market town and is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It is the 11th largest town in the United Kingdom with a population of 162,949 (2011 census). Halfway between Leeds and Manchester, it lies 190 miles (310 km) north of London, and 10.3 miles (16.6 km) south of Bradford, the nearest city.

Huddersfield is near the confluence of the River Colne and the River Holme. Located within the historic county boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is the largest urban area in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees and the administrative centre of the borough. The town is known for its role in the Industrial Revolution, and for being the birthplaces of rugby league, British Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and the international film star James Mason.

Huddersfield is a town known for sport, home to the rugby league team, Huddersfield Giants, founded in 1895, who play in the European Super League and Football League Championship football team Huddersfield Town F.C., founded in 1908. The town is home to the University of Huddersfield and the sixth form colleges Greenhead College, Kirklees College and Huddersfield New College

Huddersfield (UK Parliament constituency)

Huddersfield ⁱ/ˈhʌdərzˌfiːld/ is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1983 by Barry Sheerman of the Labour Co-operative Party (which denotes he is a member of the Labour Party and Co-operative Party, one of 30 current Labour MPs, and requires members to contribute practically to a cooperative business).

Boundaries

This constituency covers most of the large town of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. The 2006 Boundary Commission report suggested very little change to the seat.

Constituency profile

Apart from four years tenure as MP by Geoffrey Dickens for Huddersfield West (1979-1983), the area (including its divided halves for the 33 years to 1983) has returned a Labour Party MP since 1945.

The constituency is currently held by the Labour Party, although the Liberal Democrats made inroads by coming second in the 2005 general election and hold nearly as many local council seats across the constituency. In the 2010 general election Karen Tween of the Conservative Party narrowed the incumbent's lead to a relatively average 4,472 votes and the new Liberal Democrat candidate slipped into third place.