There have been many railway stations in Leeds, due to its importance at the heart of the industrial West Riding of Yorkshire. In the eighteen-sixties the city was served by six railway companies working into five main stations.

History

In chronological order the order in which railways came to Leeds were:

• 1834 The Leeds and Selby Railway opened its line with a terminus at Marsh Lane.
• 1 Jul 1840 The North Midland Railway (NMR) constructed its line to serve Derby, Rotherham and Leeds. The terminus was at Hunslet Lane.
• 1 Jul 1846 The NMR line was extended to a more central terminus at Wellington Street.
• 1854 The Manchester and Leeds Railway opened its Central station. It was eventually owned jointly by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) and the North Eastern Railway (NER). Other lines with an interest in the station through the use of running powers included the Great Northern Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the Great Central Railway
• 1 April 1869 New Station opened in a joint enterprise by the LNWR and the North Eastern Railway: it connected with the Leeds & Selby Railway at Wellington Street. The entire connection, almost a mile long, was carried on viaducts and bridges; and part of the station was built over the River Aire
• 1923 At the 1923 Grouping, the New Station retained joint ownership between the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSR) and the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).
• 2 May 1938 New Station was combined with the Wellington station to become the new Leeds City station. Central Station remained in use.
• 17 May 1967 The entire compex of station was remodelled: Central station was closed on 30 April 1967. The new Leeds City station became the single main railway station serving the city.

Statistics (1967)

At the time of the rebuilding the Railway Magazine [1] gave the following statistics:

• 500 trains on an average day: a summer Saturday saw 550 trains
• 80 trains arriving and departing during peak times
• 2.75 million passenger journeys in a normal year; +2.75 parcels handled
• Services:
  • eleven trains daily to Kings Cross; seven to St Pancras in London
  • two trains per hour to Manchester and Liverpool
  • regular services to Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and the West of England; to the North of England; and to Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland
  • local services for commuters to Harrogate, Bradford and other major centres.
    • [1] Railway Magazine July 1967 pp366-371

Services (2005)

In 2005 the train services at Leeds City station include:

• TransPennine Express network
• Virgin CrossCountry services to York, Newcastle and Edinburgh
• Intercity services
• Ten West Riding Metro Lines, as follows; details of each of the services are in separate articles:
  • Airedale Line
  • Caldervale Line
  • Hallam Line
  • Harrogate Line
  • Huddersfield Line
  • Penistone Line
  • Pontefract Line
  • Wakefield Line
  • Wharfedale Line
  • York & Selby Line

External link

List of all train services operating in West Yorkshire