Leeds | |
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Leeds railway station | |
Location | |
Place | Leeds |
Local authority | City of Leeds |
Grid reference | SE299331 |
Operations | |
Station code | LDS |
Managed by | Network Rail |
Number of platforms | 17 |
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries |
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Annual rail passenger usage | |
2004/05 * | 14.734 million |
2005/06 * | 16.060 million |
2006/07 * | 17.357 million |
2007/08 * | 18.121 million |
2008/09 * | 22.422 million |
2009/10 * | 21.978 million |
Passenger Transport Executive | |
PTE | West Yorkshire (Metro) |
Zone | 1 |
History | |
Opened 1938 Rebuilt 1967 Rebuilt 2002 |
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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 | |
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Leeds from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year. | |
Leeds railway station (also known as Leeds City station)[1][2][3][4] is the mainline railway station serving the city centre of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. The station provides connections to London, Bristol, Plymouth and the South West, Nottingham, Birmingham and the Midlands, Newcastle upon Tyne, York, Edinburgh and the North East, Manchester and Liverpool and the North West, Hull, Scarborough, Selby and Doncaster, as well as to local and regional destinations in Yorkshire. It is also the terminus for trains running on the scenic Settle to Carlisle line, as well as the hub of the Metro commuter network. It is located on New Station Street to the south of City Square, at the bottom of Park Row, behind the landmark Queens Hotel.
In 2008/9, Leeds was the busiest railway station in the North of England and the third busiest in the United Kingdom outside London, after Birmingham New Street and Glasgow Central.[5][6] According to Network Rail, which manages the station, over 36.8 million people use the station annually.[6]
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The station is situated on a hill falling from the south of the city down to the River Aire and the Leeds canal basin. Much of it is supported on a huge number of Victorian brick vaulted arches known to the people of Leeds as The Dark Arches. Situated just off Neville Street under the Dark Arches is Granary Wharf; a shopping centre consisting of cafes, restaurants, shops and exhibition spaces nestling in the arches directly beneath the railway station.
The station itself has 17 platforms, making it the largest (by number of platforms) in England outside London. There are ten terminus platforms and seven through platforms. Retail facilities within the closed (gated) part of the station include Starbucks and Upper Crust, while there is a much wider retail offering on the North and South Concourses. This includes names such as Wetherspoons, Burger King, McDonalds, two branches of WH Smith, Boots, Upper Crust and a Marks & Spencer Simply Food store. A British Transport Police station is situated on New Station Street, housing officers who police the West Yorkshire railway stations.
Leeds station is of note in that it retained manned ticket barriers through the 1990s until 2008, when they were replaced by automatic barriers by Northern Rail to help improve the congestion around the barriers ar peak times.[7][8] During this time barriers were removed from almost every British Rail station, although automatic barriers have now returned to many stations, particularly in London, the South and South Wales. Liverpool Lime Street was another station that retained manned barriers; both stations are characterised by a mix of suburban and long-distance services.
Platform usage varies depending on operational circumstances but is generally:
Leeds Interchange, located at the New Station Street exit, provides onward transport connections from the station. There are five bus stands serving Arriva, Centrebus and First routes 4, 5, 16, 16A, 19, 19A, 40, 40A, 85, 87, 90, 95, 757, 870 and DalesBus services. A 24 hour taxi rank also operates at the interchange.
Further bus stops are located on Neville Street below the station, as well as around City Square outside the station. Infirmary Street and Boar Lane Bus Points are a short walk for more bus connections.
Leeds Interchange hosts one of the UK's first cycle hubs that allows a number of cycling services including repair, storage and rental. The facility opened in Summer 2010 and is designed to encourage visitors and commuters into Leeds to continue their journey from the station by bike.[9] Its design is based on the Dutch cyclepoint concept.[10]
The railways first came to Leeds in 1834, when the Leeds and Selby Railway (which became part of the North Eastern Railway) opened its line. This had a terminus at Marsh Lane, to the east of the city centre. In 1840, the North Midland Railway (one of the original constituents of the Midland Railway) constructed its line from Derby via Rotherham to a terminus at Hunslet Lane, to the south. This was extended to a more centrally-located terminus at Wellington Street in 1846, known as Wellington Station.
Another station, Leeds Central (also situated on Wellington Street), was opened in 1854 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway and the London and North Western Railway, or LNWR. This station was eventually owned jointly by the LNWR and the North Eastern Railway, but other companies also had powers to run trains there, including the Great Northern Railway and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.
In 1869 a station called New Station opened as a joint enterprise by the LNWR and the North Eastern Railway. This connected the former Leeds and Selby Railway line to the east with the LNWR lines to the west. A mile-long connection was built, carried entirely on viaducts and bridges. New Station itself was built partially on a bridge over the River Aire. It was situated adjacent to Wellington station.
The map to the right shows the variety of different railway lines in Leeds in 1913. Following the 1921 Railways Act, when railways in Great Britain were grouped into four companies, New Station remained jointly-operated, but now by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).
The first rationalisation occurred in 1938, when two stations (New and Wellington) were combined to form Leeds City Station. The third station, Central, was unaffected by the change. Part of Wellington station became a parcels depot. This project also saw the construction of the North Concourse and the Queens Hotel.
In 1962 British Railways House (now City House) was added to the station. This was designed by the subsequently disgraced architect John Poulson, (who also designed Leeds International Swimming Pool as well as many other railway stations). This provided British Railways with administrative buildings. In recent years the buildings have become dated and hard to let. The buildings are currently unoccupied, and are expected to be refurbished in 2009 and let as offices. The building was famously lambasted by poet, John Betjeman in 1967, stating they blocked all of the light out of City Square, and the building was just a testament to money with no architectural merit.
In 1967 a further remodelling of the site took place, when all traffic using Central station was diverted into the City station with it becoming the single main railway station serving the city. Central station was closed and has since been demolished. The viaduct leading to Central is one of many such disused viaducts visible near Leeds station. A huge amount of engineering work was involved, including the replacement of 100-year-old bridges over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, the construction of a new concourse and an overall roof. At the time of this rebuilding, the station was served by 500 trains on a typical day, with 2.75 million passenger journeys a year.
By the 1990s, the station's capacity was exceeded on a daily basis, and the 1967 design was deemed inadequate. Between 1999 and 2002, a major rebuilding project took place, branded as Leeds 1st. This project saw the construction of additional approach tracks at the western end of the station, improving efficiency by separating trains travelling to or from different destinations and preventing them from having to cross each other's routes. The station was expanded from 12 to 17 platforms, with the construction of new platforms on the south side, and reopening of the now-disused parcels depot to passengers on the north side. The majority of the track, points and signals were also replaced. The most visible change to passengers, however, was the replacement of the 1967 metal canopy with a new glass roof, considerably increasing the amount of daylight on the platforms. A new footbridge was also provided, replacing the previous underpass. Ancillary improvements include a new multi-storey car park and station entrance, refurbishing the North Concourse and expanding retail facilities.
A small temporary station called Leeds Whitehall was provided to handle some services while the station was being remodelled. This has now been demolished.
In 2008 work started on the ticket control at Leeds station. In place of the human controlled ticket checking, the station has introduced walk through automated ticket gates in order to speed up the throughput of passengers. The gates came into operation at the end of October but suffered from several faults including accepting invalid tickets.[11] An oversight on the part of Northern also meant that the gates were not compatible with West Yorkshire Metro Cards.[12]
Passenger numbers are expected to surge by 63% by 2029, meaning further expansion is necessary.[13]
Construction will shortly commence on a new £15 million southern entrance to the station to allow for easier access to the station from the south.[14] The new entrance will enable passengers to access the main footbridge of City station from Granary Wharf. A ticket office will open in the new entrance.
Plans are also being drawn up to expand Leeds station's rail capacity once again, with new lines and platforms due to be built alongside platform one in the current Riverside Car Park (formerly the site of the original Leeds Wellington station) in order to cater for predicted growth.
Network Rail plans to improve the most dated part of the station, the Southern Concourse, by opening up the skylights to allow natural light to flood in. The first phase of works will aim to reduce congestion on the concourse. Consideration will also be given to a mezzanine level for more retail units.
The station is served by a number of train operators, including East Coast, CrossCountry, TransPennine Express, Northern Rail and East Midlands Trains. It is also the hub of the MetroTrain network in West Yorkshire, being the terminus of the following lines:
Preceding station | National Rail | Following station | ||
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CrossCountry | ||||
Wakefield Westgate | East Coast East Coast Main Line |
Terminus | ||
Wakefield Westgate | East Coast East Coast Main Line |
Harrogate | ||
Wakefield Westgate | East Coast East Coast Main Line |
Shipley | ||
Terminus | East Coast Leeds-Aberdeen |
York | ||
East Midlands Trains | Terminus | |||
First TransPennine Express | ||||
First TransPennine Express | ||||
Terminus | Northern Rail | |||
Terminus | Northern Rail | |||
Terminus | Northern Rail | |||
Terminus | Northern Rail | |||
Terminus | Northern Rail | |||
Terminus | Northern Rail | |||
Northern Rail
York-Blackpool North Line
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Northern Rail
Selby-Wakefield Westgate via Halifax & Huddersfield
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Northern Rail | Terminus | |||
Northern Rail | Terminus | |||
Northern Rail | Terminus | |||
Northern Rail | Terminus | |||
Northern Rail | Terminus | |||
Northern Rail
Leeds-Nottingham
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Terminus |
Leeds Lines - Past and Present | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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