Byker railway station

Byker railway station was a railway station in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne which opened in 1884 and closed on 5 April 1954. The station was opened to workers who worked in the vicinity of Shields Road, where the station was situated behind in 1884 and appeared in timetables in 1901. In workers' timetables, the station was referred to as 'Byker Platform'.^[1]

Riverside Branch

Byker railway station was located immediately south east of the Riverside Junction, the junction itself being west of Heaton station on the North Tyneside Loop. Byker was the first station on the Riverside Branch which was in fact a loop which rejoined the North Tyneside line between Howden and Percy Main stations and the 6.5 mile route opened on 1 May 1879 by the North Eastern Railway. From Byker, the line entered a tunnel under Shields Road and continued to St. Peter's; St. Anthony's, Walker; Carville; Point Pleasant and Willington Quay before rejoining the main line before Percy Main.

Location

The station was accessed from Roger Street, itself off Heaton Park Road. The ramp to the platforms was only a foot wide and each platform had a waiting shelter and a small booking office on the southbound platform. A metal footbridge linked both platforms and remained in situ until 1964. The station itself was in close proximity to Heaton station and was an administerial annexe to the aforementioned station and ticket sales for Byker went under Heaton's numbers.

Closure

After the Second World War trains were limited to Monday to Saturday at peak hours only and with its obscure location and limited access from the north tallied with the extreme proximity to Heaton resulted in the closure of Byker on 5 April 1954. The Riverside Branch (along with the North Tyneside Loop) was de-electrified in 1967 and the route itself closed to passengers in 1973. However, until 1979, the station was still intact, with its lampposts and stanchions in situ and ten years later, the platforms (minus their edge stones) remained.^[2] The site was landfilled and informal access was still available until the early 2000s - however the site was redeveloped in 2002 when a new Morrisons supermarket was built. The station site is now a car-park to the rear of the supermarket.

Byker Metro Station

When the Tyne and Wear Metro system was constructed a new station was built on an entirely new stretch of line as the Riverside Branch was not included in the plans for the new rapid transit system. Byker Metro station was opened in 1982 and was constructed to the south of Shields Road.

References

Coordinates: 54°58′40″N 1°35′10″W / 54.9777°N 1.5861°W / 54.9777; -1.5861