Ben Rhydding railway station is a
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
station in the
Ben Rhydding
Ben Rhydding is a village in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is part of the Ilkley urban area and civil parish.
The village is situated on a north-facing valley side beneath the Cow and Calf rocks and above and to the south o ...
area of
Ilkley
Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, in Northern England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within the ...
,
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
, situated about a mile East of the town centre. On the
Wharfedale Line between
Ilkley
Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, in Northern England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within the ...
and
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
/
Bradford Forster Square, it is served by
Class 331 Electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...
(EMUs) and
Class 333 Electric multiple units run by
Northern Trains
Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a State-owned enterprises of the United Kingdom, publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT) ...
, who also manage the station.
Facilities
The station has two through-platforms linked by a footbridge. The footbridge is not wheelchair accessible but there is level access to both platforms from separate streets. There is a small station car park with around twenty spaces. There is a public address system, electronic displays on both platforms and both platforms have a passenger shelter. The station is unstaffed and the former station buildings are now in private use.
Services
![Ben Rhydding Station 1790626](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Ben_Rhydding_Station_1790626.jpg)
During Monday to Saturday daytimes services run to/from Leeds and
Bradford
Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
twice per hour, and there are four services every hour to Ilkley. During Monday to Saturday evenings and all day on Sundays, services are hourly to/from both Leeds and Bradford Forster Square (service to/from the latter was doubled on Sundays from two-hourly at the December 2017 timetable change), with two departures per hour to Ilkley. The station has a small car park, but no other amenities. Since electrification of the Wharfefale Line most services are operated by
British Rail Class 333
The British Rail Class 333 are electric multiple unit passenger trains built by CAF between 2000 and 2003 for Northern Spirit (later Arriva Trains Northern), with traction equipment supplied by Siemens Transportation Systems. All have passed ...
Electric Multiple Units.
History
Ben Rhydding station, built as part of the
Otley and Ilkley Joint Railway
The Otley and Ilkley Joint Railway was a railway line running between the towns of Otley and Ilkley in West Yorkshire. The line was managed and run jointly by the Midland Railway (MR) and the North Eastern Railway (NER) and was long. Opened to ...
, was opened to passenger traffic on 1 July 1866, eleven months after the opening of the railway. In April 1865 the North Eastern Railway Board had "ordered that a small wooden station consisting of booking office, waiting room and retiring room for ladies be provided as a temporary accommodation at Ben Rhydding." Six years later, in May 1871, the Joint Committee reached an agreement with the proprietor of the Ben Rhydding Hydro, that a more permanent station structure should be built at the expense of the Hydro, with a ground rent of a penny per annum, so long as the structures met the approval of the railway engineer, a Mr. Crossley. The Hydro's arrangements with the company lasted until 1885, when the structures – a stone built station house on the south (
down) platform and a wooden structure on the north (up) platform – were sold to the railway company for £240. Clients of the hydro were met by the hydro's horse-bus, and later by motor-bus, up until some time after the first world war. The station was opened to goods traffic in 1888, and trailing access sidings were provided on the down side for this purpose. A new signal box was opened in 1901, situated at the Ilkley end of the northern platform. The signal box closed in December 1965. Goods traffic ceased on 5 July 1965, and the sidings later removed. Station staff were withdrawn on 7 October 1968, when 'pay-trains' were introduced.
[''The Railways of Wharfedale'', Peter E. Baughan (1969) David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd] The stone station building has subsequently been demolished, and shelter on both platforms is restricted to simple bus-stop type covered areas. Electrification of the Wharfedale Line was undertaken by
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
between 1994 and 1995 and is of the standard 25kV overhead supply.
References
*''Railways Through Airedale & Wharfedale'', Martin Bairstow (2004)
External links
![Ben Rhydding stn p1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Ben_Rhydding_stn_p1.jpg)
{{Railway stations in the City of Bradford
Wharfedale
DfT Category F1 stations
Railway stations in Bradford
Former Otley and Ilkley Joint Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1866
Northern franchise railway stations
Ilkley