Durham is a railway station on the East Coast Main Line, which runs between and . The station, situated south of Newcastle, serves the

cathedral city Cathedral city is a city status in the United Kingdom. Cathedral city may also refer to: * Cathedral City, California, a city in Southern California, United States * Cathedral City Cheddar, a brand of Cheddar cheese * Cathedral City High Scho ...

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

in County Durham, England. It is owned by

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 ...

and managed by London North Eastern Railway. It is managed and served frequently by London North Eastern Railway (as a stop on the East Coast Main Line). It is also served by CrossCountry,

TransPennine Express TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major ci ...

and Northern trains. Durham is a through station with two platforms, located north of the city centre, on a hill. South of the station, the railway line is elevated on a viaduct. After a renovation between 2006 and 2008, the original stone station building is now the ticket hall.

History

The city of Durham has been served by four stations, only one of which survives today: *Shincliffe (called Shincliffe Town from 1861): located in nearby

Shincliffe Shincliffe is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England. The parish population (according to the 2011 census) was 1,796. It is situated just over to the south-east of Durham city centre, on the A177 road to Stockton. Shincliffe is ...

, this station was built in 1839 and was served by the

Durham and Sunderland Railway The York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway (YN&BR) was an English railway company formed in 1847 by the amalgamation of the York and Newcastle Railway and the Newcastle and Berwick Railway. Both companies were part of the group of business interest ...

, using rope haulage until 1856. It closed when Elvet station opened in the city centre. A second station, Shincliffe, on the Leamside to Ferryhill line, was opened in 1844. That closed to passengers in 1941. * Durham (Gilesgate): opened in 1844, and within the city boundaries, it was served by a branch from Belmont on the Leamside Line, then the main line from London to Newcastle. Passenger services finished in 1857 with the opening of the current station on the branch from Leamside to Bishop Auckland but it continued in use as a

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...

until final closure in 1966. Today it has been redeveloped as a Travelodge hotel, while the serving track was used in the realignment of the A690 Gilesgate bypass road. *Durham: In 1857, a station on the current location and viaducts over North Road and the

River Browney The River Browney is a river in County Durham, England, and the largest tributary of the River Wear. The River Browney rises from a spring in Head Plantation, on the eastern slope of Skaylock Hill, about a mile south east of Waskerley. The spr ...

immediately to the south were built by the North Eastern Railway, on their Leamside to Bishop Auckland line to . The station was redeveloped in 1871, when the North Eastern Railway developed a new line from

Tursdale Tursdale is a hamlet in County Durham, England. It is situated in rural landscape about two miles to the west of Coxhoe, two miles North of Cornforth and around five miles south of Durham. It is part of the civil parish of Cassop-cum-Quarrington ...

through Relly Mill Junction to Durham, and onwards from Newton Hall Junction through Chester-le-Street to Newcastle Central via the

Team Valley Team Valley is a trading estate located in Gateshead. It is home to the Retail World retail park, with many large, international companies are based in the area's trading estate. In 2017, there were approximately 700 companies on the estate, emp ...

. This became the main line, the current East Coast Main Line on 15 January 1872. *Durham (Elvet): in 1893, the Durham-Sunderland branch was diverted from Shincliffe Town to a new station at Elvet, within the city boundary. It closed to regular passenger services in 1931 and fully closed in 1953. On grouping in 1923, the stations came under the control of the London and North Eastern Railway. Passenger services to Bishop Auckland and Sunderland via

Penshaw The village of Penshaw , formerly known as ''Painshaw'' or ''Pensher'', is an area of the metropolitan district of the City of Sunderland, in Tyne and Wear, England. Historically, Penshaw was located in County Durham. Name and etymology The ...

were withdrawn by British Railways under the

Beeching cuts 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 M ...

, on 4 May 1964. The East Coast Main Line through Durham was

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

in 1991.

Station Masters

*Edmund Page ca. 1873 - 1882 *Joseph Pattison 1900 - 1907 *William Curley 1907 - 1917 (afterwards station master at Sunderland) *William Parker 1917 - 1922 (afterwards station master at Harrogate) *J.C. Pigg 1922 - 1925 (formerly station master at Bishop Auckland, afterwards station master at Bedlington) *Edmund Maleham 1925 - 1926 (removed because of support for the General Strike) *J.A. Simpson 1926 - 1946

Current facilities

Today, the station is owned by

LNER LNER may refer to: * London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947 * London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018 * Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a typ ...

and managed by London North Eastern Railway (LNER). It was refurbished between 2006 and 2008 by the operator

Great North Eastern Railway Great North Eastern Railway, often referred to as GNER, was a train operating company in the United Kingdom, owned by Sea Containers, that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, North ...

(GNER) and later

National Express East Coast National Express East Coast (NXEC) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom, owned by National Express, that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, North East England and ...

(NXEC), which included a new passenger lounge, toilets, travel centre, glazed waiting area, lifts and shops. The entrance and ticket hall were moved from the "temporary" 1960s building into the original stone building following renovation and repairs. The works were completed in early 2008 and the newly renovated station won "Best Medium Station" and "Overall Station of the Year" at the 2008 National Rail Awards. Ticket barriers were installed in 2009. After winning the intercity east coast rail franchise, former operator

Virgin Trains East Coast Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) (legal name East Coast Main Line Company Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, the N ...

(VTEC) opened an information office on platform 2, added new benches and perch seating and installed Wi-Fi connection. In 2017, all ticket barriers were removed as part of Virgin Trains East Coast's (VTEC) franchise commitment. A

Brompton Bicycle Brompton Bicycle is a British manufacturer of folding bicycles based in Greenford, London. The Brompton folding bicycle and accessories are the company's core product, noted for its self-supporting compact size when stored. All available model ...

hire scheme was planned to open in 2018 - however since the demise of

(VTEC) the management of the station has since passed on to London North Eastern Railway (LNER). Durham County Council, working with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, have completed a project to improve cycle routes and pedestrian access to the station from the north of the city. This involved the construction of a new cycle path as well as upgrades to road crossings on Framwellgate path. In order to accommodate the new London North Eastern Railway Class 800 and

801 __NOTOC__ Year 801 ( DCCCI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Emperor Charlemagne formally cedes Nordalbian territory (modern-day Schleswig-H ...

''Azuma ''trains that entered service in mid 2019, platform 1 was extended north to a total length of 230 metres.

Services

Train services are provided by four companies: London North Eastern Railway (LNER), CrossCountry,

and

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

. LNER serves Durham with one train per hour each way, southbound to via Darlington, , and , and northbound to via . Some northbound services are extended beyond Edinburgh, with one service per day to both (via ) and , as well as one daily train to (via Newcastle) instead of Edinburgh. There is also one southbound train per day to (via York) instead of London. CrossCountry operates services on the

Cross Country Route A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

. Northbound, the company runs two trains per hour to , of which one continues through to and one train every two hours is extended even further, to . There are also two daily services that continue beyond Edinburgh to Dundee, of which one is further extended to Aberdeen. Southbound, there are two trains per hour to via , /, and ; of these, one train per hour continues to via and , and one continues to via , with two-hourly further extensions to . A few trains per day continue beyond Plymouth to .

serves the station with two trains an hour each way. In the northbound direction, trains run to and one train per hour is extended to . Southbound, trains generally run to via , and ; of the two hourly services, one continues to (via ) and one runs further to . Northern Trains' services at Durham are less frequent, with just three morning trains every weekday north to Newcastle (of which two run through to via ) and one evening train per day south to .

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Railway stations served by TransPennine Express Railway stations in County Durham DfT Category C1 stations Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1857 Railway stations served by CrossCountry Railway stations served by TransPennine Express Northern franchise railway stations Railway stations served by London North Eastern Railway Buildings and structures in Durham, England Thomas Prosser railway stations 1857 establishments in England