Castleford railway station serves the town of
Castleford
Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the town centre the River Calder joins the ...
in
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 ...
. It lies on the
Hallam and
Pontefract
Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wake ...
lines, south-east of
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 ...
.
Although it was built originally as a through station, regular passenger services beyond Castleford towards
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
were discontinued in January 1970. Today, all trains calling at the station reverse here, arriving and departing from the former northbound platform 1. Platform 2 is currently out of use and inaccessible, though it was brought back into use temporarily during the
Leeds First project in 2002;
Transpennine services between York and
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...
were diverted to avoid engineering work in Leeds, routed via
Church Fenton
Church Fenton or Kirk Fenton is a village and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England. It is about east of Leeds, about south-east from Tadcaster and north from Sherburn in Elmet. Neighbouring villages include Barkston ...
, Castleford and
Wakefield Kirkgate. It may also be brought back into use on a more permanent basis to help accommodate extra peak hour services, if
Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...
proceed with plans mooted in the recent Yorkshire & Humberside
RUS
Rus or RUS may refer to:
People and places
* Rus (surname), a Romanian-language surname
* East Slavic historical territories and peoples (). See Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia
** Rus' people, the people of Rus'
** Rus' territories
*** Kievan ...
. The route from Church Fenton continues to be used for freight traffic, empty stock transfers, special trains and such engineering and other out-of-course diversions as required as well as a small number of passenger trains that are booked this way for route retention; this includes overnight Trans-Pennine services, plus the first Cross Country from York on Saturdays.
West Yorkshire Metro
Metro is the passenger information brand used by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in England. It was formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE) at the same time as the metropolitan county of West Yor ...
has been developing plans to relocate
Castleford bus station to a new site, next to the railway station, and to create a fully integrated and staffed transport interchange. In October 2014, work on the new £6 million bus station was started and it opened to the public in February 2016.
History
The current station was built by the
North Eastern Railway in 1871 to replace an earlier one to the east built by the
York and North Midland Railway
The York and North Midland Railway (Y&NMR) was an English railway company that opened in 1839 connecting York with the Leeds and Selby Railway, and in 1840 extended this line to meet the North Midland Railway at Normanton near Leeds. Its first c ...
on their line from York to
Normanton and opened on 1 July 1840. A short time later an east to north curve was constructed between Whitwood and
Methley
Methley is a dispersed village in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, south east of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is located near Rothwell, Oulton, Woodlesford, Mickletown and Allerton Bywater. The Leeds City Ward is called Kippax a ...
junctions (the latter on the
North Midland Railway
The North Midland Railway was a British railway company, which opened its line from Derby to Rotherham (Masbrough) and Leeds in 1840.
At Derby, it connected with the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at what ...
main line) to create the first through route between York 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 ...
– it would remain the primary route between the two cities until 1869 and also carry services between Leeds and Hull for a number of years thanks to the machinations of
George Hudson
George Hudson (probably 10 March 1800 – 14 December 1871) was an English railway financier and politician who, because he controlled a significant part of the railway network in the 1840s, became known as "The Railway King"—a title conferr ...
.
The town gained a second station at Cutsyke in 1860, courtesy of the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways. It was the third-largest railway system based in northern ...
whose line from
Pontefract Monkhill
Pontefract Monkhill railway station is the busiest station in the town of Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England. The station is on the Pontefract Line managed by Northern (train operating company), Northern but is also served by Grand Central (tr ...
to Methley Junction (and hence Leeds) had opened in 1849 and passed over the Y&NMR line near Whitwood Junction. Further construction work by both companies saw lines built to
Lofthouse (on the main line from
Wakefield Westgate
Wakefield Westgate railway station is a mainline railway station in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It is south of Leeds to the west of the city centre, on the Wakefield Line and Leeds branch of the East Coast Main Line.
The first Westga ...
to Leeds) via
Stanley
Stanley may refer to:
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Film and television
* ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film
* ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy
* ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short
* ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...
(the Methley Joint line) in 1865 (1 May 1869 for passenger traffic),
to Garforth via Ledston in 1878 (giving passengers the choice of no fewer than three alternative routes to Leeds) and a curve linking the Y&NM and L&Y routes in the town two years later. This latter piece of line was seldom used for much of its life (and was closed on two occasions) but now forms an important part of the line towards Knottingley.
Thus by the end of the nineteenth century the station (by now known as Castleford Central) had an impressive range of services to choose from, with regular links to Leeds, Wakefield and on towards
Manchester Victoria
Manchester Victoria station in Manchester, England is a combined mainline railway station and Metrolink tram stop. Situated to the north of the city centre on Hunts Bank, close to Manchester Cathedral, it adjoins Manchester Arena which was ...
through the Calder Valley as well as to York. Longer distance destinations (including Sheffield, Derby, Birmingham and London) were also available by means of a change at Normanton.
By the early 1950s however the local network began to decline, with the Garforth line the first to lose its passenger trains on 22 January 1951. The Methley Joint line fell victim to the
Beeching Axe
The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...
on 2 November 1964 whilst the L&Y station at Cutsyke suffered a similar fate on 7 October 1968 – trains from Pontefract thereafter using the aforementioned curve to reach Central, where they reversed before continuing to Leeds via Whitwood Junction (although the direct line remained in use for freight until 23 February 1981).
![Castleford station 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Castleford_station_2.jpg)
Another significant change was the withdrawal of services on the original Y&NMR line between York and Wakefield on 5 January 1970, leaving the station to be served only by trains on the
Pontefract Line (although a handful of summer dated trains from Wakefield to York and
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
continued to run until 1988) and creating the current situation where all scheduled trains calling there approach from the west, use a single platform and have to reverse to continue their journeys. One more positive development was the re-routing of trains on the
Hallam line
The Hallam Line is a railway connecting Leeds and Sheffield via Castleford in the West Yorkshire Metro area of northern England. It is a slower route from Leeds to Sheffield than the Wakefield line. Services on this line are operated by Nort ...
via the town in 1988, which reinstated the link with Wakefield and also gave passengers access to direct trains to
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
and
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
.
The station had substantial buildings on both platforms until the 1970s, but these have mostly been demolished (along with the footbridge); one structure still survives at the northern end of the remaining platform but it is not in passenger use. The old station
signal box
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
also remains, though it too is boarded up and disused (the area is now signalled from a panel box located next to the Castleford Gates
level crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...
).
A redevelopment of the station took place in 2020 with the construction of new station buildings and an enlarged car park. In November 2021, work began to restore the second platform. A new footbridge with lifts will be built to enable step-free access.
Facilities
![Castleford railway station (24th April 2021) 002](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Castleford_railway_station_%2824th_April_2021%29_002.jpg)
The station is unstaffed, though the Metro travel centre within the nearby bus station is staffed from 08:30 each day until 16:00 on weekdays and 14:30 on Saturdays (closed Sundays); this sells a full range of rail tickets. A self-service ticket machine is provided for use outside of these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. A waiting room is available on the platform, along with a digital information screen and timetable poster board; automated train announcements also offer running information for passengers. Step-free access is available from the car park to the platform. As of the completion of the new station buildings there is a takeaway food counter in the waiting room and a disabled toilet.
Services
Monday to Saturdays, there is a twice an hour service from Castleford to
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 ...
with an hourly service to
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
via
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
(''Hallam Line'') and an hourly service to
Knottingley
Knottingley is a market town in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England on the River Aire and the old A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road before it was bypassed as the A1(M). Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Ridi ...
(plus one single early evening service through to
Goole
Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire.
According to the 2011 UK census, Goole parish had a population of 19,518, an increa ...
) (''Pontefract Line''). Additionally, a Monday to Friday (peak hours only) service operates to (as an extension of the service which formerly terminated/started at Wakefield Kirkgate), that began in May 2019.
Departures from Huddersfield to Castleford
/ref> On Sundays there is an hourly service to Leeds and a two-hourly service to both Sheffield and Knottingley (but no service to Huddersfield).
Notes
References
*Body, G. (1988), ''PSL Field Guides – Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2'', Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough,
External links
Information from Metro about the new travel interchange
{{West Yorkshire railway stations
Railway stations in Wakefield
DfT Category F1 stations
Former York and North Midland Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1840
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1871
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1871
Northern franchise railway stations
Castleford
George Townsend Andrews railway stations
1871 disestablishments in England