Bradford has the UK's worst rail connections

Bradford is hoping for a new station as part of the Northern Powerhouse Rail line.

Bradford has the worst rail connections of any major British city, a report has found.

Despite being the UK's seventh largest city and being centrally located, it came bottom of the list due to a lack of direct rail routes and slow connections.

There are four trains to London - the best connected city - each day.

Local politicians said the findings proved Bradford needs a stop on the Northern Powerhouse Rail line.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the data analysis, by the Be The Best Communications' People, Places, Policy and Data Unit, looked at more than 3,000 real-life train journeys between 20 cities and compared them with the same journey by road.

The report comes ahead of the publication of the government's Integrated Rail Plan, which will set out how major projects, including Northern Powerhouse Rail will be delivered.

Bradford Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority has been campaigning for a Northern Powerhouse Rail station in Bradford city centre that would cut journey times to Manchester and Leeds.

Bradford has four trains to London a day

Leaders claim it would bring 6.7 million people and an area of more than £167 billion of annual economic output to within a 35-minute journey of central Bradford.

According to Bradford Council the stop would boost the Bradford district economy by about £30 billion over ten years, creating 27,000 new jobs.

Leader Susan Hinchcliffe said: "This new research shows that the city that would be the most improved by investing in better rail connections is Bradford."

She added it would "transform the connectivity of three of Britain's largest cities [Bradford, Leeds and Manchester] using existing rail services, while also delivering a station able to handle Northern Powerhouse Rail services" and "cut around 44,000 daily car journeys between Leeds and Bradford, cutting congestion and delivering greener, more sustainable transport across the north [of England]."