Gargrave is a railway station on the Bentham Line, which runs between and via . The station, situated north-west of Leeds, serves the village of

Gargrave Gargrave is a large village and civil parish in the Craven district located along the A65, north-west of Skipton in North Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the very edge of the Yorkshire Dales. The River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

. 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

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) ...

History

The station was opened on 30 July 1849 by the "Little" North Western Railway, later taken over by the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...

. The original stone shelters survive on each platform, but the main wooden station building is now in private use.

Stationmasters

*Peter William ca. 1851 *W. Renshaw until 1861 (afterwards station master at Berkley Road) *John Bell 1861 - ca. 1866 *W. Lewin (formerly station master at Oxenhope) *Thomas Stone ca. 1871 - 1893 *David Bennett Smith 1893 - 1901 (afterwards station master at Manningham) *James Staff 1901 - 1920 (formerly station master at Oxenhope) Midland Railway ticket

Facilities

It is unstaffed and until 2019 had no ticket machine (so travellers had to buy tickets in advance or on the train). A new ticket machine has now been installed, along with digital information screens as part of an ongoing station upgrade process by train operator first announced back in 2016. Train running information is also provided by timetable posters and telephone. Step-free access is only possible for southbound travellers, as the northbound platform can only be reached via steps from the road bridge.

Pennine Way

The

Pennine Way The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England, with a small section in Scotland. The trail stretches for from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park and ends at Kir ...

, a long-distance path, crosses the railway a few hundred yards to the west of the station.

Services

The service level from here in both directions was increased at the May 2018 timetable change, as a consequence of the 2015 Northern franchise award to Arriva Rail North. The improvements included two additional trains each way on the Leeds - Lancaster route on weekdays and an extra train on Sundays - these began operating on 20 May 2018 with the start of the summer timetable. In total there are now fourteen departures northbound (up from ten prior to May 2018) - eight to Lancaster and five to Carlisle, plus one evening train to . Five of the Lancaster trains continue to Morecambe, but the daily direct Heysham train has now ceased on weekdays (though it does run on a Sunday since the winter 2019 timetable update). Southbound there are thirteen departures to Leeds, plus a single late evening departure to Skipton only (though this has a connection to Leeds from there). Eight trains each way call on Sundays (five to Lancaster and Morecambe, three to Carlisle northbound).

References

Sources

External links

* * Craven District DfT Category F2 stations Railway stations in North Yorkshire Former Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Northern franchise railway stations 1849 establishments in England {{Yorkshire-Humber-railstation-stub