York railway station

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York
Location
Place	York
Local authority	York
Operations
Station code	YRK
Managed by	GNER
Platforms in use	11
Live departures and station information from National Rail
Annual Passenger Usage
2004/05 **	5.795 million
History
Key dates	Opened 1877 Extended 1909 Footbridge Built 1938 Repaired 1947 Currently being refurbished
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 passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at York (source)   * 2002/03 Disclaimer  ** 2004/05 Disclaimer
UK Rail Portal

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 historic city of York. It lies on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) between London's King's Cross station and Edinburgh's Waverley Station. Originally it was part of the North Eastern Railway.

The first York railway station was built within the walls of the city in 1839 by the York and North Midland Railway, and was the terminus of the original trunk route for trains to London, via Derby and Birmingham. A second station, also inside the walls, was built in 1841.

The present station was designed by the North Eastern Railway architect Thomas Prosser and William Peachey. On completion in 1877, it had 13 platforms and was the largest in the world.

In 1909 new platforms were added, and in 1938 the current footbridge was built. The building was damaged during the Second World War and extensively repaired in 1947. As of February 2006, work is underway to rationalise and improve the approach to the station, which remains largely as it was in the 1870s, for bus, taxi, and car users as well as pedestrians and cyclists.

The station provides connections to:

• Doncaster, Retford, Grantham, Newark, Peterborough, Stevenage, London and other stations on the ECML south
• Darlington, Durham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and other stations on the ECML north
• Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Birmingham and stations in the south-west of England and on the south coast, via Virgin Cross-Country services
• 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 TransPennine Express services
• Bradford, Halifax, Hebden Bridge and stations to Preston and Blackpool or Manchester Victoria by Northern Rail's commuter services
• Hull on the Hull to York Line, Selby, and Scarborough on the North TransPennine Line to the east.

The former motive power depot now houses the National Railway Museum.

Contents 1 Station users 2 For enthusiasts 2.1 Regular passenger traffic 2.2 Regular freight traffic 2.3 Railtours and charters 2.4 Empty stock 2.5 Icebreakers 2.6 Access to the NRM 2.7 Photo locations near the station 3 External links

[edit] Station users

The station is used by the following TOCs

• GNER - Inter-City 225 (Class 91 electric locomotive and DVT) and Inter-City 125 (HST) services between London and the North East and Scotland.
• 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.
• Virgin Cross-Country - Class 220 and Class 221 'Virgin Voyager' diesel multiple units on cross-country services linking the Midlands and South West with the North East and Scotland.
• Midland Mainline - very limited weekend-only service, occasionally HSTs but now more usually Class 222 Meridian diesel multiple units. Midland Mainline trains terminate at York in the winter and run on to Scarborough in the summer. Midland Mainline offers an alternative (but much slower) route to the South along the Midland Main Line via Leicester to London St Pancras soon to be the home of Eurostar international services.

From May 2007, the station will also be served by a new company: Grand Central.

The station is operated by GNER on behalf of Network Rail.

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 by lifts and a tunnel.

The platforms at York have been renumbered several times, the current usage 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, accessible directly from the station concourse. Most southbound GNER or Cross-Country 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, accessible by footbridge or tunnel. Most northbound GNER or Cross-Country services and some North/Eastbound First Trans-Pennine Express services use this.
• Platform 6: South-facing bay platform used mostly by Northern Rail commuter services.
• 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 branch.
• Platforms 9, 10, 11: Bidirectional platforms used by GNER, Cross-Country and 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.

[edit] For enthusiasts

[edit] Regular passenger traffic

Normal passenger traffic at York will produce GNER HSTs and Class 91s (with the chance of seeing a Class 67 dragging 91s if the wires are down or the loco has problems), Transpennine 185s, Virgin 220s and 221s, and an assortment of Northern Rail 150, 156, 158, 142 and 144 DMUs. The Northern Rail fleet still has considerable variation in livery; as well as the new red and silver MetroTrain colours and Northern's own lilac/white, many units still bear legacy liveries from Arriva Trains Northern, older versions of the MetroTrain scheme, North Western Trains/First North Western, and even lightly-disguised old Regional Railways colours.

[edit] Regular freight traffic

A significant amount of EWS and Freightliner freight traffic runs through York (only a very limited amount of GBRf and DRS traffic passes through) -- most of it uses the avoiding line for freight only which runs which behind the station, although some freight is routed through the station. The vast majority of this traffic is hauled by Class 66 locomotives, although some Class 60 haulage can still be seen.

Enthusiasts wishing to observe traffic on the avoiding line will find that the South end of platforms 10/11 gives a very good view of the trains against the background of St Paul's Church and Bridge.

[edit] Railtours and charters

York is a very popular destination for railtours and other charter trains, with steam, diesel and electric locomotives all regular visitors to the station.

Charter trains and railtours can most often be found using platforms 9-11, with locomotive stabling often either in the Fruit Dock or at Holgate sidings. There are often opportunities to watch locos being exchanged or 'running around' light-engine. Saturday from about 11am to 2pm is a recommended viewing time - plenty of freight is scheduled, the New Measurement Train can often be seen heading North (it usually returns at about 9am on Monday) and it's the usual arrival time for most railtours.

[edit] Empty stock

Empty stock is often stabled in the bays, particularly Platforms 2, 6, and 7.

[edit] Icebreakers

In recent years, Class 86 electric locomotives used as "icebreakers" for the overhead line equipment have been regular winter visitors - a Freightliner loco spent winter 2004/5 on these duties, usually stabled in at Platform 6 in 2004-5, and the Network Rail Class 86/9 load banks have been stabled at Platform 1 in Winter 2005-6 and 2006-7.

[edit] Access to the NRM

Note that there is now a direct exit to the National Railway Museum from the footbridge (rather than the previous long walk out of the station and up Leeman Road), where as well as the historic attractions there is an observation platform and a duplicate of the control screens at York IECC that shows all train movements in the area.

[edit] Photo locations near the station

Excellent photographic opportunities nearby are afforded by the nearby Holgate Footbridge. A footbridge near Cinder Lane gives some interesting photographic opportunities of the avoiding line (which is not shown on the map on the link; only the passenger lines appear).

A new depot for Transpennine Express is being constructed in the Leeman Road area.

To photograph the extensive yards to the north of the station where infrastructure equipment is stabled, the best photographic vantage point is a small hill on a business park off Poppleton Road.

[edit] External links

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

• Images of England - details from listed building database

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Garforth or Leeds		TransPennine Express North TransPennine		Thirsk or Darlington or Malton
Doncaster or Leeds		Virgin Trains Cross-Country Route		Darlington
Doncaster		GNER East Coast Main Line		Northallerton or Darlington
Doncaster		Midland Mainline Winter only		Terminus
		Midland Mainline Summer only		Scarborough
Poppleton		Northern Rail Harrogate Line		Terminus
Ulleskelf		Northern Rail York & Selby Lines		Terminus
Ulleskelf		Northern Rail Dearne Valley Line		Terminus
Selby or Ulleskelf		Northern Rail Hull-York Line		Terminus
London King's Cross		Grand Central (London-Sunderland) Not yet Operational		Thirsk

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