York railway station

This article is about a railway station in England. For the similarly named subway station in Brooklyn, New York City, see York Street (IND Sixth Avenue Line).

York railway station is a main-line railway station in the city of York, England. It lies on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) 188.5 miles (303 km) north of London's King's Cross station towards Edinburgh's Waverley Station. Originally it was part of the North Eastern Railway.

York is one of the most important railway junction stations on the British railway network, approximately halfway between London and Edinburgh; it is also a few miles north of the point where the Cross Country and Trans-Pennine routes via Leeds leave the ECML. The junction was historically a major site for rolling stock manufacture, maintenance and repair.

History

The first York railway station was a temporary wooden building on Queen Street outside the walls of the city, opened in 1839 by the York and North Midland Railway. It was succeeded in 1841, inside the walls, by what is now York old railway station. In due course, the irksome requirement that through trains between London and Newcastle needed to reverse out of the old York station in order to continue their journey necessitated the construction of a new through station outside the walls. This was the present station, designed by the North Eastern Railway architects Thomas Prosser and William Peachey, which opened in 1877. It had 13 platforms and was at that time the largest station in the world. As part of the new station project, the Royal Station Hotel (now The Royal York Hotel), designed by Peachey, opened in 1878.

In 1909 new platforms were added, and in 1938 the current footbridge was built and the station resignalled. The building was damaged during the Second World War and extensively repaired in 1947. The track layout through and around the station was remodelled again in 1988 as part of the resignalling scheme that was carried out prior to the electrification of the ECML shortly afterwards. This resulted in several bay platforms (mainly on the eastern side) being taken out of service and the track to them removed. At the same time a new signalling centre (York IECC) was commissioned on the western side of the station to control the new layout and also take over the function of several other signal boxes on the main line. The IECC here now supervises the main line from Temple Hirst (near Doncaster) through to Northallerton, along with sections of the various routes branching from it. It has also (since 2001–2) taken over responsibility for the control area of the former power box at Leeds and thus signals trains as far away as Gargrave and Morley.

In 2006–7, in order to improve facilities for bus, taxi and car users as well as pedestrians and cyclists, the approaches to the station were reorganised. The former motive power depot and goods station now house the National Railway Museum.

Layout

All the platforms except 9/10/11 are under the large, curved, glass and iron roof. They are accessed via a long footbridge (which also connects to the National Railway Museum) or via lifts and either of two pedestrian tunnels.

Major renovation

The station was renovated in 2009. Platform 9 has been reconstructed and extensive lighting alterations were put in place. New automated ticket gates (similar to those in Leeds) were planned, but the City of York Council wished to avoid spoiling the historic nature of the station. The then operator National Express East Coast planned to appeal the decision but the plans were scrapped altogether upon handover to East Coast.^[1]

Platforms

The platforms at York have been renumbered several times, the current use is:

• Platform 1: South-facing bay platform mostly used for services to Hull and for stabling empty stock.
• Platform 2: North-facing bay platform connected only to the Scarborough branch, used mostly for stabling a spare TPX unit (along with the accompanying station siding).
• Platform 3: Main southbound platform (but is signalled bi-directionally), accessible directly from the station concourse. Most southbound East Coast or CrossCountry services and some Westbound First Trans-Pennine Express services use this.
• Platform 4: Northward continuation of platform 3 connected only to the Scarborough branch, used by most First Trans-Pennine Express services from Scarborough.
• Platform 5: Main northbound platform (but is signalled bi-directionally), accessible by footbridge or tunnel. Most northbound East Coast or CrossCountry services, some North/Eastbound First Trans-Pennine Express services use this and Summer Saturday only East Midlands Trains services to Scarborough.
• Platform 6: South-facing bay platform used mostly by Northern Rail commuter services, East Coast services to King's Cross station and on non summer Saturdays by East Midlands Trains services to London St. Pancras.
• Platform 7: South-facing bay platform used mostly by Northern Rail commuter services.
• Platform 8: North-facing bay platform used almost exclusively by Northern Rail trains on the Harrogate Line.
• Platforms 9, 10, 11: Bidirectional platforms used by East Coast, Cross-Country and First TransPennine Express services.

Platforms 10 and 11 exist outside the main body of the station. Another siding (the former fruit dock) exists opposite Platform 11.

Services

The station is operated by East Coast on behalf of Network Rail, and provides services to:

• Doncaster, Retford, Grantham, Newark, Peterborough, Stevenage, London and other stations on the ECML south
• Darlington, Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and other stations on the ECML north
• Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Birmingham, Bristol via CrossCountry services on to Exeter and Plymouth
• Harrogate and Knaresborough (going on to Leeds) on the Harrogate Line
• Liverpool, Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport to the west and Middlesbrough to the north via First TransPennine Express services
• Hartlepool, Eaglescliffe and Sunderland via Grand Central Railway
• Bradford, Halifax, Hebden Bridge and stations to Preston and Blackpool or Manchester Victoria by Northern Rail's commuter services
• Leicester, Kettering, Bedford, Luton and other stations on the Midland Main Line served by East Midlands Trains through Sheffield.
• Hull on the Hull to York Line (One train continues to Bridlington), Selby, and Scarborough on the North TransPennine Line to the east.

The station is used by the following TOCs

• East Coast - Inter-City 225 (Class 91 electric locomotive and DVT) and Inter-City 125 (HST) services between London and the North East and Scotland.
• First TransPennine Express - Class 185 "Pennine" diesel multiple units between Manchester and Liverpool and Scarborough, Newcastle or Middlesbrough.
• Northern Rail - assorted Sprinter (Class 15x) and Pacer (Class 14x) diesel multiple units operating 'stopping' services across Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire.
• CrossCountry - Class 220 and Class 221 'Voyager' diesel multiple units on cross-country services linking the Midlands and South West with the North East, South East Wales and Scotland. They also now operate intercity 125 HSTs.
• East Midlands Trains - very limited weekend-only service, run by Class 222 Meridian diesel multiple units. East Midlands Trains terminate at York in the winter and run on to Scarborough in the summer. East Midlands Trains offers an alternative (but much slower) route to the South along the Midland Main Line via Leicester to London St Pancras (now the home of Eurostar international services).
• Grand Central - Inter-City 125 between London and the North East and Sunderland.

References

External links

• Details from listed building database (464767) . Images of England. English Heritage.
• Images of England details of Old Station

• Train times and station information for York railway station from National Rail
• The Railway Revolution - on 'History of York' website