Goole railway station is a railway station in town of

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 ...

on the

Hull and Doncaster Branch The Hull and Doncaster Branch is a secondary main railway line in England, connecting Kingston upon Hull to South Yorkshire and beyond via a branch from the Selby Line near Gilberdyke to a connection to the Doncaster–Barnetby line at a junctio ...

in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The station and its passenger services are managed and provided by

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

. Lines from Goole run north to the Hull and Selby Line at Gilberdyke (formerly Staddlethorpe); south to the

South Humberside Main Line The South Humberside Main Line runs from Doncaster on the East Coast Main Line to Thorne where it diverges from the Sheffield to Hull Line. It then runs eastwards to Scunthorpe and the Humber ports of Immingham and Grimsby, with the coastal res ...

near Thorne; there is also a westward line 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 ...

mostly used by freight, with an infrequent passenger service. The station opened in 1869 replacing a terminus station in the Goole docks.

Facilities

The station has a ticket office on platform 2 (southbound), which is staffed part-time (07:00 - 13:30) on weekdays and Saturdays only. A self-service ticket machine is available for use outside of these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. A waiting room and vending machine are provided on platform 2 and a shelter on platform 1, along with extensive canopies on each side. Digital display screens, timetable posters and automated announcements are used to give train running information. Step-free access is available to both platforms via the ramped subway linking them.

Services

Monday to Saturday daytimes there are two trains an hour eastbound to Hull (one of which continues to via the

Yorkshire Coast Line Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

) and towards and southbound. One of the latter runs express to Sheffield, whilst the other stops at all stations. On Sundays, there are two trains per hour each to Hull and Doncaster, with hourly extensions to Sheffield and Bridlington/Scarborough. The Pontefract Line has

Parliamentary train A parliamentary train was a passenger service operated in the United Kingdom to comply with the Railway Regulation Act 1844 that required train companies to provide inexpensive and basic rail transport for less affluent passengers. The act requ ...

s of just two trains per day (Monday to Saturday) to and : one in the early morning (07:42) and one in the evening (19:58). Only one train (the 17:58 from Leeds) runs in the opposite direction (the other early morning one runs empty from Leeds to take up its return working). The service was more frequent in the 1980s, but was reduced in 1991 (due to a DMU shortage) and again in 2004 (when the mid-day service was curtailed at Knottingley). It continues to run mainly so that the TOC meets its statutory franchise requirements and avoids the need for the line to be put through the formal closure process. There is no Sunday service on this route. Services on this line have been suspended since 27 February 2020 due to

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

at , with a rail replacement bus service in operation. In February 2013 the line northeast of

Hatfield and Stainforth station Hatfield and Stainforth railway station serves the towns of Hatfield and Stainforth in South Yorkshire, England. It is located north east of the main station. The original station, known until the 1990s as "Stainforth and Hatfield" and was ...

towards Thorne was blocked by the

Hatfield Colliery landslip Hatfield Colliery, also known as Hatfield Main Colliery, was a colliery in the South Yorkshire Coalfield, mining the High Hazel coal seam. The colliery was around northwest of Hatfield, South Yorkshire, adjacent north of the railway line from D ...

, with all services over the section halted. As a result, from Goole rail services to Doncaster & Sheffield were suspended and replaced by road transport. The line reopened to traffic in July 2013.

History

The

Wakefield, Pontefract and Goole 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 ...

obtained authorisation in 1845 to build a railway to Goole as well as building a pier and improving the harbour. However, it was amalgamated before construction with the

Manchester and Leeds Railway The Manchester and Leeds Railway was a British railway company that built a line from Manchester to Normanton where it made a junction with the North Midland Railway, over which it relied on running powers to access Leeds. The line followed the ...

in 1846. In 1847 the Manchester and Leeds Railway was authorised to change its name to 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 ...

, and in 1848 the L&YR was Goole's first connected railway. The current station was opened by the

NER NER may refer to: * New European Recordings, a record label * ISO 3166-1 three letter code for Niger * Named entity recognition, a text processing task that identifies certain words as belonging to one class or another * Northeast Regional, an Amt ...

on 1 October 1869 (along with their line from Thorne Junction to

Gilberdyke Gilberdyke is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately south-east of York and west of Hull. Gilberdyke lies near to Howden which is away. It lies on the B1230 road, south of the M62 ...

). Passenger trains from the Knottingley direction initially ran to a terminus station next to the docks but this was closed when the NER station opened, trains then using a short curve to join the main line at ''Potter's Grange Junction'' south of the new station. The former L&Y line into the docks remained a busy freight route for many years afterwards, but has now been lifted (though access to the remaining dock sidings is still possible from the main line). Goole station is mentioned in the song " Slow Train" by

Flanders and Swann Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo. Lyricist, actor and singer Michael Flanders (1922–1975) and composer and pianist Donald Swann (1923–1994) collaborated in writing and performing comic songs. They first worked together in a scho ...

about various closed lines on the British railway network.

''No one departs, no one arrives, From Selby to Goole, from St Erth to St Ives.''Flanders and Swan online "Slow Train"
lyrics ''nyanko.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk''

The Selby to Goole Line which opened in 1910, ran via the villages of Rawcliffe, Drax & Barlow until its closure in 1964. There was a small buffet run by the Kitwood family on the up platform and a small office on the down platform serving a wholesale newspaper business run by Joe Kelbrick; nearby there is a small goods yard used by

DB Cargo UK DB Cargo UK (formerly DB Schenker Rail UK and English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS)), is a British rail freight company headquartered in Doncaster, England. The company was established in early 1995 as ''North & South Railways'', successful ...

steel trains. The station saw heavy redevelopment in the 1970s.

Notes

References

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External links

{{s-end Railway stations in the East Riding of Yorkshire DfT Category E stations Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1869 Northern franchise railway stations Goole 1869 establishments in England