York railway station
York railway station is on the East Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom, serving the city of York, North Yorkshire. It is 188 miles 40 chains north of London King's Cross and on the main line it is situated between Doncaster to the south and Thirsk to the north; as of June 2018 the station is operated by London North Eastern Railway. York's station is a key junction halfway between London and Edinburgh, it is five miles north of the point where the Cross Country and TransPennine Express routes via Leeds join the main line, connecting Scotland and the North East, North West and southern England. The junction was a major site for rolling stock manufacture and repair. In Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins, the station was one of only ten to be awarded five stars; 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 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 to continue their journey necessitated the construction of a new through station outside the walls. The present station, designed by the North Eastern Railway architects Thomas Prosser and William Peachey, opened on 25 June 1877, it was at that time the largest in the world. As part of the new station project, the Royal Station Hotel, designed by Peachey, opened in 1878. In 1909 new platforms were added, in 1938 the current footbridge was built and the station resignalled; the building was bombed during the Second World War. On one occasion, on 29 April 1942, 800 passengers had to be evacuated from a King's Cross-Edinburgh train which arrived during a bombing raid. On the same night, two railway workers were killed, one being station foreman William Milner, who died after returning to his burning office to collect his first aid kit, he was posthumously awarded the King's commendation for gallantry.
A plaque in his memory has been erected at the station. The station was extensively repaired in 1947; the station was designated as a Grade II* listed building in 1968. The track layout through and around the station was remodelled again in 1988 as part of the resignalling scheme, carried out prior to the electrification of the ECML shortly afterwards; this resulted in several bay platforms being taken out of the track to them removed. At the same time a new signalling centre was commissioned on the western side of the station to control the new layout and take over the function of several other signal boxes on the main line; the IECC here now supervises the main line from Temple Hirst through to Northallerton, along with sections of the various routes branching from it. It has 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, to improve facilities for bus 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. On 31 March 1920, a passenger train was derailed as it entered platform 8. On 5 August 1958, a passenger train crashed into the buffers at platform 12. All the platforms except 9, 10 and 11 are under the large, curved and iron roof, they are accessed via lifts and either of two pedestrian tunnels. Between April 1984 and 2011 the old tea rooms housed the Rail Riders World/York Model Railway exhibition; the station was renovated in 2009. Platform 9 has been extensive lighting alterations were put in place. New automated ticket gates were planned, but the City of York Council wished to avoid spoiling the historic nature of the station; the operator National Express East Coast planned to appeal the decision but the plans were scrapped altogether upon handover to East Coast. The southern side of the station has been given new signalling systems. An additional line and new junction was completed in early 2011; this work has helped take away one of the bottlenecks on the East Coast Main Line.
The station has become the site of one of Network Rail's modern Rail Operation Centres, which opened in September 2014 on land to the west of the station This took over the functions of the former IECC in December 2018 and will control much of the East Coast Main Line from London to the Scottish border and various subsidiary routes across the North East and South, North and West Yorkshire. The platforms at York have been renumbered several times, the most recent being in the late 1980s to coincide with a reduction in the number of platforms from 15 to 11; the current use is: Platform 1: South-facing bay platform used for services to Hull or Sheffield via Moorthorpe and for stabling empty stock. Platform 2: North-facing bay platform connected only to the Scarborough branch, used for stabling a spare TransPennine Express unit. Platform 3: Main southbound platform, accessible directly from the station concourse. Fast and semi-fast southbound London North Eastern Railway for London King's Cross use this platform.
CrossCountry services, Grand Central, some westbound TransPennine Express services use it. Platform 4: Northward continuation of platform 3 connected only to the Scarborough branch
Leeds Beckett University
Leeds Beckett University known as Leeds Metropolitan University and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in Headingley; the university’s origins can be traced to 1824, with the foundation of the Leeds Mechanics Institute. Leeds Polytechnic was formed in 1970, was part of the Leeds Local Education Authority until it became an independent Higher Education Corporation on 1 April 1989. In 1992, the institution gained university status; the current name was adopted in September 2014. The annual income of the institution for 2016–17 was £221.4 million of which £3.4 million was from grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £217.1 million. The university traces its roots to 1824; the institute became the Leeds Institute of Science and Literature and in 1927 was renamed Leeds College of Technology. In 1970, the college merged with Leeds College of Commerce, part of Leeds College of Art and Yorkshire College of Education and Home Economics, forming Leeds Polytechnic.
In 1976, James Graham College and the City Of Leeds College of Education joined Leeds Polytechnic. In 1987, the Polytechnic became one of the founding members of the Northern Consortium. After the Further and Higher Education Act came into effect in 1992, the Polytechnic became Leeds Metropolitan University, with the right to award its own degrees. In 1998, the university merged with Harrogate College, establishing the Harrogate campus until 2008 when the college left the university and merged with Hull College. In 2008 the university petitioned the Privy Council to be renamed "Leeds Carnegie University". In 2009 a partnership with the University of North Florida was established to begin a student and faculty exchange programme; the university has an agreement with Bradford College by which it validates degrees for the college. In 2013, it was announced that the Board of Governors had applied to the Privy Council to change the name to Leeds Beckett University, after one of the university's founding colleges, Beckett Park, which in turn was named after Ernest Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe.
The proposed change resulted in a backlash among students. The Privy Council approved Leeds Metropolitan University's application to change its name to Leeds Beckett University in November 2013; the name change took place in September 2014. The former logos of Leeds Metropolitan University were retained after the name changed, being adapted to fit the new name. Despite the name change, the university is referred to as "the Met" or "the Poly" by local people; the Carnegie name is less used by the university now but is still retained for the sporting faculty. This comprises a number of locations on the northern side of Leeds city centre between the Inner Ring Road and the University of Leeds campus. In addition to the former Polytechnic site, several other buildings have been acquired; these include: Cloth Hall Court, in the legal district of the city. The latest additions for the 2008/09 year were the Rose Bowl, the new home of the Leeds Business School, opposite the Civic Hall and designed to reflect the facade of the Civic Hall and the Broadcasting Place complex, including Broadcasting Tower, a new set of buildings which fits in with the red stone brick buildings famous in Leeds and which provides teaching space for the Faculty of Arts and Technology and the Faculty of Art and Design, as well as student accommodation.
Two buildings on the site have been disposed of since becoming a university, the Brunswick building was sold and in 2008 demolished. A further tower block is now a Premier Inn; the remaining 1960s buildings of the former polytechnic were reclad in the early 2010s. New high-rise student accommodation has been built around the City Campus and includes Opal Tower and the Sky Plaza; these are now the tallest buildings in the Northern half of the city centre. A 100-acre campus sited in Beckett Park, the campus is connected to the city centre by Headingley railway station, a short walk from the campus. Bus routes on Otley Road and Kirkstall Lane are close by; the main building was constructed in 1912 as the Education Block for the City of Leeds Training College and is a Grade II Listed Building of red brick, gritstone ashlar dressings, slate and a lead roof. It is of classical Neo-Georgian style by the winner of an architectural competition; the main entrance is reached by a flight of stairs to a recessed portico framed by 4 Corinthian pillars and a pediment above, the building as a whole was constructed around two internal quadrangles.
However, these have now been filled in to create large lecture theatres. During the WW I and WW II it was used as a military hospital, it is now named after James Graham, Secretary of Education of the City of Leeds, a major instigator of the Training College, involved in the planning and supervision of the project. He named all of the Halls, apart from Priestley, chosen by a committee; the James Graham Building stands in front of a large lawn called the Acre. On the two sides are buildings of the same date and materials, which were halls of residence for the college students but are now teaching facilities; these are Grade II Listed buildings. Bronte Hall was desi
Leyland National
The Leyland National is an integrally-constructed British step-floor single-decker bus manufactured in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries – the National Bus Company and British Leyland. Buses were constructed at a specially built factory at Workington. Styling was carried out by the Italian vehicle stylist Giovanni Michelotti commissioned by both Triumph and Scammell lorries, it was intended to replace all the rear-engined single-decker buses offered by British Leyland, including the AEC Swift, Bristol RE, single-deck Daimler Fleetline, Daimler Roadliner and Leyland Panther. The Leyland National was built with a rear engine. All components were designed for ease of replacement; until 1978, it was always built with a roof mounted pod at the rear, housing the heating equipment, which blew warm air out at roof level. At first the pod was the length of a bay and appeared designed to give a Trans-Atlantic feel. In 1976 a new shorter version of the roof pod was introduced along with the battery being relocated to the front under the cab.
The Leyland National was available in the majority being 10.3 m and 11.3 m. It was easy to spot the longer ones as its main side windows were all the same length, on the shorter models the windows were shorter except for one in the middle, the same length as on the longer models; the third length was 10.9m, specially produced for Australian operators due to stringent axle weight limits. This used the front section of the rear action of the 10.3 metre bus. One 10.9 metre bus was sold to a Scottish operator and was fitted out to dual purpose specification for use on express services. The Leyland National was a simple design: all parts could be replaced; some operators, like London Transport, bought dual door models, later configured some of them to single door. This was helped by the design of the body, the fact that parts were inter-changeable and that the bus was constructed using Avdelok rivets, specially designed for the National, instead of the more usual pop rivets screws or welding; the earlier vehicles were only available in a limited number of standard colours, e.g. dark red, light red, dark green, to try to match but simplify existing operators' liveries.
This just predated the decision by the National Bus Company to standardise on two colours: poppy red and leaf green. The timing was such that several vehicles were delivered in dark red paint to Ribble, who repainted them poppy red before entry into service. At London Transport's insistence, London bus red was added to the colour card, their fleet amounted to over 500 examples acquired between 1973 and 1980. In 1978, Leyland brought out a simplified model intended to replace the Bristol LH, in production since 1967 and was a type popular in NBC companies for rural routes, it was available in a single length and had a revised interior that had minimal lighting and without the rear roof-mounted heating unit in previous models. Heating was under the seats, was basic but effective; these vehicles were lighter, this characteristic and the lower cost helped make extra sales. London Country bought quite a number of these, which other operators snapped up when London Country was broken up; the National 2 was introduced in 1979.
It differed from its predecessor by having a wider choice of engines, along with a new nose moulding giving it a more bulbous look and a grille to cool the new front-mounted radiator, a revised rear end with new lights and a different engine door. The Mark I Leyland Nationals had an 8.3-litre straight-six turbocharged Leyland 510 headless diesel engine. The Leyland 510 engine had an unusual design; this engine did not prove popular with all operators, being prone to poor fuel consumption and heavy smoke production if not maintained to high standards. Some operators experimented with a different engine and found they could avoid the 510, which had the reputation of being a high maintenance unit and hard to work on. On a simplified model was offered, with an engine, reduced in power to 150bhp instead of the usual 180bhp setting for the heavier duty version of the National; the National 2 was powered by the 0.680 engine later the TL11, the Leyland 510 engine no longer being offered. In 1981, a Gardner 6HLXB engine was experimentally installed in accident-damaged Eastern Counties Omnibus Company National.
This paved the way for many engine conversions. Leyland were taken to court by Gardner for not offering their engine as an option in the fast selling National and as a result began to offer the Leyland National 2 with Gardner engines from 1982 the 6HLXB and the 6HLXCT; the first was delivered in March 1972 to Cumberland Motor Services and the bus became a common sight on British roads. Although developed for the National Bus Company, it was bought by the Scottish Bus Group subsidiaries, London Transport, SELNEC and British Airways and other operators. In years to come, with all of the pressures created by deregulation, operators began refurbishing their Nationals for extended service retrofitting DAF or Volvo engines; the riveted body parts were replaced. In some cases a veh
Harrogate railway station
Harrogate railway station serves the town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Located on the Harrogate Line it is 18.25 miles north of Leeds. Northern operate the station and provide nearly all passenger train services except a daily London North Eastern Railway service to and from London King's Cross; the station was opened by the North Eastern Railway on 1 August 1862. It was designed by the architect Thomas Prosser and was the first building in Harrogate built of brick and had two platforms. Before it opened, the town's rail routes had been somewhat fragmented - the York and North Midland Railway branch line from Church Fenton via Tadcaster had a terminus in the town, but the Leeds Northern Railway main line between Leeds and Thirsk bypassed it to the east to avoid costly engineering work to cross the Crimple Valley and the East and West Yorkshire Junction Railway from York terminated at Starbeck. Once the individual companies had become part of the NER, the company concentrated all lines at a new single depot.
A storm in November 1866 caused a chimney stack to fall through the station roof causing considerable damage. In 1873, a footbridge was added; the booking office was robbed on 7 December 1868 when thieves drilled through the ticket window covering with a bit and brace, stole a small amount of cash. The station platforms were lengthened by 100 yards in 1883 as a result of the opening of a second route to Leeds via Wetherby in 1876. In 1892, the actor, Harry Fischer, was shot at by Violet Gordon at the station, she was arrested by the police. The station was demolished in 1964/65 and replaced with a more utilitarian one by Taylor Bown and Miller, Architects. A car park now occupies the site of the bay platforms on the south side, it coincided with the loss of three of the main routes through the town in the Beeching Axe - both routes via Wetherby closed to passenger traffic on 6 January 1964 and the Leeds Northern route to Northallerton via Ripon on 6 March 1967. The York branch was included in Beeching's 1963 report, but it was reprieved in 1966 and remains open.
The original, attractive wrought iron footbridge remained until the mid 2000s when it was taken down and replaced by a modern plain steel one further down the platform. The station was serviced by a cafe called the'Circle Bar' until its closure in the 1990s; the station has a staffed ticket office open seven days a week, along with ticket machines. Facilities include a newsagent, key cutters, ATMs, a cafe, photo booths and a waiting room, all located on the main concourse on Platform 1; the station has three platforms, but only platforms 1 and 3 are in operation - platform 2 is not in public use. Full step-free access is available to both main platforms and they are linked by a footbridge with lifts. Ticket barriers were installed in early 2017; the Monday to Sunday daytime service is a half-hourly to Leeds calling at all stations and to Knaresborough on the Harrogate Line with an hourly service onwards to York calling at all stations en route. Services double in frequency at peak time to Leeds, resulting in 4tph with 1tph running fast to Horsforth.
There are 4tph in the opposite direction between 16:29 and 18:00 from Leeds with one running fast from Horsforth to Harrogate. Evenings an hourly service operates from Leeds through Harrogate towards York. London North Eastern Railway operates a daily morning service starting in Harrogate to London King's Cross, with an evening return. Proposals have been made to create a station between Harrogate and Starbeck at Bilton, whilst the new Northern franchise operator Arriva Rail North plans to improve service frequencies towards Leeds to 4tph from 7am to 7pm once the new franchise agreement starts in April 2016. Most trains are operated by Class 150 DMUs, Class 155, Class 142 & 144'Pacer' railbuses and Class 153 single units. Class 158 units are used at peak times; the London service is operated using a High Speed Train. Harrogate's first railway station, was the terminus of York and North Midland Railway's branch line and the first train arrived there on 20 July 1848; the station was situated on the site where Trinity Church now stands, close to the Prince of Wales roundabout and some distance from either High or Low Harrogate.
When the new line of the North Eastern Railway entered Harrogate via a cutting through The Stray, Brunswick closed and the first train into the town centre station was on 1 August 1862. The city was served by a railway station on the Leeds-Northallerton Line that ran between Leeds and Northallerton via Harrogate and Ripon, it was once part of the North Eastern Railway and LNER. The site is now occupied by Starbeck railway station; the Ripon Line was closed to passengers on 6 March 1967 and to freight on 5 September 1969 as part of the wider Beeching Axe, despite a vigorous campaign by local campaigners, including the city's MP. Today much of the route of the line through the city is now a relief road and although the former station still stands, it is now surrounded by a new housing development; the issue remains a significant one in local politics and there are movements wanting to restore the line. Reports suggest the reopening of a line between Ripon and Harrogate railway station would be economically viable, costing £40 million and could attract 1,200 passengers a day, rising to 2,700.
Campaigners call on MPs to restore Ripon railway link. Train times and station information for Harrogate railway station from National
National Rail
National Rail in the United Kingdom is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies of England and Wales. The TOCs run the passenger services provided by the British Railways Board, from 1965 using the brand name British Rail. Northern Ireland, bordered by the Republic of Ireland, has a different system. National Rail services share a ticketing structure and inter-availability that do not extend to services which were not part of British Rail; the name and the accompanying double arrow symbol are trademarks of the Secretary of State for Transport. National Rail should not be confused with Network Rail. National Rail is a brand used to promote passenger railway services, providing some harmonisation for passengers in ticketing, while Network Rail is the organisation which owns and manages most of the fixed assets of the railway network, including tracks and signals; the two coincide where passenger services are run.
Most major Network Rail lines carry freight traffic and some lines are freight only. There are some scheduled passenger services on managed, non-Network Rail lines, for example Heathrow Express, which runs on Network Rail track; the London Underground overlaps with Network Rail in places. Twenty eight owned train operating companies, each franchised for a defined term by government, operate passenger trains on the main rail network in Great Britain; the Rail Delivery Group is the trade association representing the TOCs and provides core services, including the provision of the National Rail Enquiries service. It runs Rail Settlement Plan, which allocates ticket revenue to the various TOCs, Rail Staff Travel, which manages travel facilities for railway staff, it does not compile the national timetable, the joint responsibility of the Office of Rail Regulation and Network Rail. Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain; the look and feel of signage and marketing material is the preserve of the individual TOCs.
However, National Rail continues to use BR's famous double-arrow symbol, designed by Gerald Burney of the Design Research Unit. It has been incorporated in the National Rail logotype and is displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and other publicity; the trademark rights to the double arrow symbol remain state-owned, being vested in the Secretary of State for Transport. The double arrow symbol is used to indicate a railway station on British traffic signs; the National Rail logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Identity Style Guidelines published by the Rail Delivery Group, available on its website. "In 1964 the Design Research Unit—Britain’s first multi-disciplinary design agency founded in 1943 by Misha Black, Milner Gray and Herbert Read—was commissioned to breathe new life into the nation’s neglected railway industry".
The NR title is sometimes described as a "brand". As it was used by British Rail, the single operator before franchising, its use maintains continuity and public familiarity; the lettering used in the National Rail logotype is a modified form of the typeface Sassoon Bold. Some train operating companies continue to use the former British Rail Rail Alphabet lettering to varying degrees in station signage, although its use is no longer universal; the British Rail typefaces of choice from 1965 were Helvetica and Univers, with others coming into use during the sectorisation period after 1983. TOCs may use what they like: examples include Futura, Frutiger, a modified version of Precious by London Midland. Although TOCs compete against each other for franchises, for passengers on routes where more than one TOC operates, the strapline used with the National Rail logo is'Britain's train companies working together'. Several conurbations have their own metro or tram systems, most of which are not part of National Rail.
These include the London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, London Tramlink, Blackpool Tramway, Glasgow Subway, Tyne & Wear Metro, Manchester Metrolink, Sheffield Supertram, Midland Metro and Nottingham Express Transit. On the other hand, the self-contained Merseyrail system is part of the National Rail network, urban rail networks around Birmingham, Cardiff and West Yorkshire consist of National Rail services. London Overground is a hybrid: its services are operated via a concession awarded by Transport for London, are branded accordingly, but until 2010 all its routes used infrastructure owned by Network Rail. LO now possesses some infrastructure in its own right, following the reopening of the former London Underground East London line as the East London Railway. Since all the previous LO routes were operated by National Rail franchise Silverlink until November 2007, they have continued to be shown in the National Rail timetable and are still considered to be a part of National Rail.
Heathrow Express and Eurostar are not part of the National Rail network despite sharing of stations. Northern Ireland Railways were
Pacer (train)
Pacer is the operational name of the British Rail Classes 140, 141, 142, 143 and 144 diesel multiple unit railbuses, built between 1980 and 1987. The railbuses were intended as a short-term solution to a shortage of rolling stock, but as of 2019, many are still in use. All Pacer trains are scheduled to be retired by the end of 2019; the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations require that all public passenger trains must be accessible to disabled people by 2020. Only one Pacer meets this requirement, the remainder will therefore need to be withdrawn by that date unless they receive an extensive refurbishment. Furthermore, a ministerial directive in 2015 by the Transport Secretary required that such railbuses were removed from service by 2020 for the new Northern franchise stating that the "continued use of these uncomfortable and low-quality vehicles is not compatible with our vision for economic growth and prosperity in the north."As of December 2018, 140 units are in service with three operators: Northern, Great Western Railway and Transport for Wales.
All operators intend to retire all Pacer trains by the end of 2019 in line with the statutory instrument to improve accessibility on trains. The Pacer series were built with low construction and running costs in mind, so all of the Pacer units feature the following: The use of a lightweight modified bus body and other bus components, such as seating, with a reinforced driver's cab area to comply with crashworthiness standards; the use of a long-wheelbase four-wheel freight-wagon inspired underframe, rather than the more usual arrangement of two four-wheeled bogies. This arrangement has been criticised for rough-riding, causing loud noise and excessive wear to the wheels and track on tight curves. At the beginning of the 1980s British Rail needed to produce new trains to replace its ageing fleets of first generation diesel multiple units, built between the mid-1950s and early-1960s; these first-generation units had helped replace steam and had, when introduced, proved popular with the public.
At the time BR was under severe financial pressure from the government and lacked the money to replace all of them with units of similar quality. BR developed two different types of units as second generation replacements: The Sprinter series, as conventional DMUs for use on urban and longer-distance services, the Pacer series as low-cost DMUs built using bus parts and intended for short-distance rural and branch line services; the Pacers were intended as a low-cost stopgap solution to the rolling stock shortage, with a maximum lifespan of 20 years. BR set a challenge to several companies to design a lightweight train similar to railbuses. Since 165 Pacer trains have been built. Demonstrator units toured the U. S. Northern Ireland, Sweden, Thailand and Indonesia, without producing sales; however Iran purchased redundant Class 141 units, for use on suburban lines around Tehran until 2005. The Pacer series was the result of an experiment to see whether the possibility of using bus parts to create a diesel multiple unit was viable.
The initial prototype, known as LEV-1, was a joint project by the British Rail Research Division and Leyland Motors using a bus body mounted on a modification of an existing freight vehicle underframe. This was followed by the two-car prototype class 140, built in 1980 at British Rail Engineering Limited's Derby Litchurch Lane Works; the prototype was joined by another 20 two-car units. The units were used in Yorkshire, operating on predominantly suburban services, they had a capacity of 94 passengers per two-car set, two Leyland TL11 engines gave a total of 410 bhp, resulting in a top speed of 75 miles per hour. The entire class underwent a technical upgrade in 1988 at the Hunslet-Barclay works in Kilmarnock; the units were withdrawn from use in 1997. Many were sold to Islamic Republic of Iran Railways but have been withdrawn and are left in disused sidings in Iran, whilst a few remain in preservation; because it used a standard Leyland National body, the Class 141 was narrower than the Pacers, could therefore accommodate only standard bus seating.
The Pacers had widened body panels to allow an increase in seating. The next and largest Pacer class was the Class 142; this again was built by Leyland and BREL, in 1985. The body was based on a Leyland National bus, built at Workington in Cumbria. Many fixtures and fittings of the Leyland National could be found on the units; the new class had a greater capacity of 120 passengers per two-car set and the same engines were used. The first sets were used on Devon and Cornwall branch lines and on commuter services in the north west; the units from Cornwall were moved to Liverpool and the north east, the Class 142s have become a common sight on services across the north of England. The class was upgraded in the early 1990s to include more powerful Cummins engines, which gave a total power output of 460 bhp per two-car set. A number of units were modified for use on the Merseyside PTE City Line on Merseyrail in the Liverpool region, which included dot-matrix route indicators, improved seating and Merseyrail PTE paintwork.
This class moved into the control of Arriva Trains Northern and First North Western at privatisation, subsequently passed on to Northern Rail, Arriva Rail North, Arriva Trains Wales and Transport for Wales. Eight Northern Rail units were temporarily withdrawn from service, replaced by a cascading of British Rail Class 158s. First Great Western received 12 units on loan from Northern Rail from D
Leeds–Northallerton railway
The Leeds–Northallerton railway is a disused railway line between West and North Yorkshire, in northern England. The line was opened in the 1850s; the Leeds and Thirsk Railway via Starbeck opened on 9 July 1848. In 1852 as the Leeds Northern Railway the extension to Northallerton and Stockton opened; the line became part of the North Eastern Railway in the 1854 amalgamation. All three stations at Leeds were used at various times; the section between Leeds and Harrogate is still extant, but its trains now serve a former branch line to York instead of continuing through Ripon to Northallerton. The line north of Harrogate was closed a few years after the publication of Richard Beeching's The Reshaping of British Railways report; the route was closed to passenger traffic on 6 March 1967, but a limited number of freight trains used the line to Ripon until 1969. It was supposed that closing this stretch of line would have little impact, since passengers travelling north could join the East Coast Main Line at York.
The stretch was temporarily re-opened as an emergency diversionary route during the Thirsk rail crash. The closure of the northern section of the line meant an end to over 100 years of railway service to the city of Ripon. In 2005, North Yorkshire County Council commissioned Ove Arup to undertake a feasibility study into the possibility of reopening the closed stretch of line between Harrogate and Ripon; the city was served by Ripon railway station on the Leeds-Northallerton line that ran between Leeds and Northallerton. It was once part of the North Eastern Railway and LNER; the Ripon line was closed to passengers on 6 March 1967 and to freight on 5 September 1969 as part of the wider Beeching Axe, despite a vigorous campaign by local campaigners, including the city's MP. Today much of the route of the line through the city is now a relief road and although the former station still stands, it is now surrounded by a new housing development; the issue remains a significant one in local politics and there are movements wanting to restore the line.
Reports suggest the reopening of a line between Ripon and Harrogate railway station would be economically viable, costing £40 million and could attract 1,200 passengers a day, rising to 2,700. Campaigners call on MPs to restore Ripon railway link. In October 2015, North Yorkshire County Council included the reopening in its Strategic Transport Prospectus, submitted to Transport for the North. In February 2016 the County Council included it in its Local Transport Plan, but it is accepted that it is unlikely to happen until after 2030. From Leeds Leeds Central Holbeck Low Level Royal Gardens Burley Park opened 1988 Headingley Horsforth Woodside Horsforth Arthington Weeton Pannal Hornbeam Park Harrogate: The Harrogate loop was completed in 1862 Starbeck: The original route via Starbeck opened in 1848 Nidd Bridge Wormald Green Ripon Melmerby Melmerby was a junction with the original line to Baldersby and Thirsk Melmerby was the junction for the line to Tanfield and Masham At Melmerby South, there was the junction for a short branch to a Ministry of Supply Ordnance Depot.
Sinderby Pickhill Newby Wiske Northallerton List of closed railway lines in Great Britain List of closed railway stations in Britain Bairstow, Railways Around Harrogate, ISBN 1-871944-18-X Reopening of Harrogate to Ripon line feasibility study PDF
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National Rail