Selby railway station

This article is about the railway station in England. For the Puffing Billy Railway station near Melbourne, Australia, see Selby railway station, Melbourne.

Selby
Location
Place	Selby
Local authority	Selby
Coordinates	53°46′59″N 1°03′48″W / 53.783000°N 1.063440°W / 53.783000; -1.063440Coordinates: 53°46′59″N 1°03′48″W / 53.783000°N 1.063440°W / 53.783000; -1.063440
Grid reference	SE618322
Operations
Station code	SBY
Managed by	First TransPennine Express
Number of platforms	3
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.395 million
2005/06	0.406 million
2006/07	0.443 million
2007/08	0.473 million
2008/09	0.499 million
2009/10	0.453 million
2010/11	0.481 million
2011/12	0.485 million
History
Opened 1834 (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
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Selby from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Selby Station, with Up freight train in 1957

Stopping train from Hull entering off the swing-bridge in 1957

Selby railway station serves the town of Selby in North Yorkshire, England. The station is on the Hull-York Line 21 miles (34 km) south of York, Leeds-Hull Line 20.75 miles (33 km) east of Leeds and 31 miles (50 km) west of Hull.

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. The station is mentioned in the song "Slow Train" by Flanders and Swann.

History

The original station was opened in 1834 by the Leeds and Selby Railway; it 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 to the south of the station site. Selby station was the first railway station to be built in Yorkshire, a fact commemorated by a plaque on the original building.

In 1840, the Hull and Selby Railway was opened. The original terminus station of the Leeds & Selby railway was converted to goods use only and the current station was built. To cross the River Ouse, a bascule lifting bridge was installed to the northeast of the station,^[1] which was replaced by the current swing bridge in 1891.^[2] Ships had (and still have) priority over railway traffic.

The Cawood, Wistow and Selby Light Railway (CW&SLR) was opened in 1898 linking the Leeds & Selby Railway to the village of Cawood. Until 1904 the line had a separate station, Brayton Gates, 1 mile west of Selby. The line was predominantly used for agricultural traffic but also carried passengers until 1930, its final closure taking place in 1960.

Another branch was built to link Selby to the nearby port town of Goole in 1910. The Selby to Goole Line ran via the villages of Barlow, Drax and Rawcliffe and closed in 1964 as a result of the Beeching Axe. A short section of the line was used to access a ballast tip near Barlow until 1983.

The Selby Diversion

Before 1983, Selby was on the East Coast Main Line. When the National Coal Board (NCB) began to exploit the Selby Coalfield, a diversionary route for the ECML had to be built to avoid subsidence to the railway. This diversion took the ECML away from Selby, leaving it a much quieter station.

The new route leaves the old at Temple Hirst Junction 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 NCB, had major advantages to the railway in that it removed a bottleneck from the ECML by avoiding the speed-restricted Selby Swing Bridge over the River Ouse.

It was the first purpose built section of high-speed railway in the UK having a design speed of 125 mph and predated the first section of High Speed 1 by 20 years.

The original route north of Selby was closed on 24 May 1983 and in 1989 was converted into a cycle track which now forms part of route 65 of the National Cycle Network. The section passing Barlby and Riccall was used to build a bypass on the A19. The southern section remains in operation and is used by passenger services to Doncaster & London and goods traffic heading to the Potter Group freight terminal near the former Barlby Junction, a short distance east of the station on the Hull line.

175th Anniversary

In 2009 the 175th anniversary of the opening of the first railway station in Selby was celebrated.^[3]

Current services

To Hull - Monday to Saturdays there are generally two trains per hour to Hull. An hourly First TransPennine Express service and either a train from York or a First Hull Trains service from London Kings Cross.

To York - there is generally an hourly service daily north to York. Some services start/ terminate here, others run to and from Hull.^[4]

To Leeds - Monday to Saturdays there are two trains per hour to Leeds. One Northern Rail stopping service (usually continuing westwards to Bradford Interchange, Halifax and Huddersfield) and one First TransPennine Express service to Manchester Piccadilly.^[5] Evenings and Sundays there is either an hourly or two-hourly First TransPennine Express service to Leeds and Manchester.

To London - there are eight trains per day on weekdays in total to Doncaster and London Kings Cross, all but one (the Hull Executive, which is run by East Coast) provided by First Hull Trains. Northern also run two trains to/from Doncaster (one in the early morning and one in the evening - the latter pair through from Sheffield). On Saturdays and Sundays, there are six trains to and from London (one East Coast service and five from First Hull Trains).

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Selby railway station.

• Train times and station information for Selby railway station from National Rail
• The Leeds and Selby Railway
• A brief guide to Selby Railway station Yorkshire's oldest : built 1834 www.selby.gov.uk
• Selby Horizontal Directional Drill Successfully Completed at Global Rail Construction
• CASE STUDY: Selby Rail and River Crossing at AMS No-Dig
• Selby Swingbridge Project Update at Global Rail Construction

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Doncaster		East Coast East Coast Main Line		Brough
Doncaster		First Hull Trains East Coast Main Line		Howden
South Milford		First TransPennine Express North TransPennine		Howden
York		Northern Rail Hull-York Line		Wressle
Sherburn-in-Elmet
Brough		Northern Rail Sheffield-Hull Line		Doncaster
South Milford		Northern Rail York & Selby Lines		Howden
	Disused railways
Temple Hirst		ECML (Old route)		Riccall
Terminus		CW&SLtR		Brayton Gates
Terminus		Selby to Goole Line		Barlow
Terminus		Selby to Driffield Line		Cliff Common