New Azuma rail service to link Dewsbury and London

LNER are to introduce a new weekday service to the capital on May 18 following demand from passengers in the town.

The daily train will leave at 5.50am and call at Dewsbury before joining up with another London-bound Azuma at Leeds Station. It will arrive in London at 8.51am.

The return service leaves King's Cross at 6.03pm and will split at Leeds, with one Azuma continuing to Skipton and the other to Dewsbury and Huddersfield, arriving back just before 9pm.

The timings will mean business travellers will be able to arrive in London in time for morning meetings and return at a reasonable hour.

Up until the 1960s, there were as many as three direct trains a day from Huddersfield to London, but the service was then axed and did not return.

The hybrid Azumas will run on diesel until they reach Leeds, when they will switch to electric power.