Selby railway station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Location
Selby
Place	Selby
Local authority	Selby (district)
Operations
Station code	SBY
Managed by	First TransPennine Express
Platforms in use
Annual entry/exit 04/05	0.394 million **
History
Key dates	Opened 1834
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
** based on sales of tickets in 2004/05 financial year which end or originate at Selby. Disclaimer (PDF)

Selby railway station serves the town of Selby in North Yorkshire, England. Before the opening of the Selby diversion line in the early 1980s it was on the East Coast Main Line. It is managed by First TransPennine Express. It is mentioned in the song "Slow Train" by Flanders and Swann.

1 The Leeds and Selby Railway
2 The Hull and Selby Railway
3 Branch Lines
4 The Selby Diversion
5 External links

[edit] The Leeds and Selby Railway

The railway first came to Selby in 1834 in the shape of the Leeds & Selby Railway. This was just a few years after the first ever passenger railway in the world was constructed between Stockton and Darlington. The route was built primarily to move goods from the major industrial city of Leeds to the River Ouse at Selby to allow traffic to continue its journey by boat to the east coast port of Hull. The original station at Selby consisted of a shed by the waterside in which passengers would alight the train and walk across the road to the connecting boat on the river. This site was just behind the current station site. Selby station was the first railway station to be built in Yorkshire, a fact commemorated by a plaque on the original building.

[edit] The Hull and Selby Railway

1840 saw the next major developments for Selby as a railway hub. The York and North Midland Railway Company completed its line from York to Castleford via Burton Salmon. This line was also joined to the Leeds & Selby railway allowing trains to run from York to Selby and Selby to Castleford. More importantly a line from Hull to Selby – the Hull and Selby Railway – was built allowing through running from Leeds to Hull. The original terminus station of the Leeds & Selby railway was converted to goods use only and the current station was built. In order to cross the River Ouse a swing bridge was installed to the East of the station. Ships had (and still have) priority over railway traffic.

[edit] Branch Lines

In 1848 a branch line from the Hull & Selby Railway was build from Barlby just to the East of Selby to Market Weighton in the East Riding.

The Cawood, Wistow and Selby Light Railway (CW&SLR) was opened in 1898 linking the Leeds & Selby Railway to the village of Cawood. This line was predominantly used for agricultural traffic but also carried passengers until its closure in 1960.

Another branch was built to link Selby to the nearby port town of Goole. This branch ran via the villages of Barlow, Drax and Rawcliffe.

[edit] The Selby Diversion

Until the early 1980s Selby was on the main East Coast Main Line. When British Coal began to exploit the Selby coalfield, a diversionary route for the ECML had to be built to avoid subsidence to the railway. This diversion (the “Selby Diversion”) took the ECML away from Selby, leaving it a much quieter station. The new route leaves the old at Temple Hirst to the south of Selby and rejoins it at Colton Junction several miles to the north of the town where the York-Leeds line meets the ECML. The diversion, which was financed by the Coal Board, had major advantages to the railway in that it removed a bottleneck from the ECML by avoiding the Selby Swing Bridge over the River Ouse.

[edit] External links

Train times and station information for Selby railway station from National Rail
Street map and aerial photo of Selby railway station from Multimap.com

Preceding station		Following station
South Milford	Northern Rail York & Selby Lines	Terminus
York or Sherburn-in-Elmet	Northern Rail Hull-York Line	Wressle
Garforth	First TransPennine Express North TransPennine	Howden
Doncaster	GNER East Coast Main Line	Howden
Doncaster	Hull Trains London-Hull	Howden