Horsforth railway station is a
railway station
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 ...
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 ...
,
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 ...
. It is on the
Harrogate Line north west of
Leeds station and the final stop in the
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 ...
regulated area towards
Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...
.
History
![Horsforth station, looking north - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Horsforth_station%2C_looking_north_-_geograph.org.uk_-_671076.jpg)
The station, accessed from Station Road, serves
Horsforth
Horsforth is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish within the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England, lying about five miles north-west of Leeds city centre. Historically a village within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it had a p ...
,
Cookridge
Cookridge is a suburb of north-west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, north of the Leeds Outer Ring Road. In 1715 Ralph Thoresby described it as a village four miles from Leeds and three from Otley, dating from 1540.Ralph Thoresby (1715) ''Duc ...
and
Tinshill
300px, The high point on Otley Old Road, showing (left) Tinshill Water Tower, (middle) Cookridge Fire Station, (right) Tinshill BT Tower
Tinshill (pronounced ''Tins-hill'') is a district of Leeds, 4 miles (7 km) north of Leeds city cen ...
, and was opened in 1849. In 1969, staff were removed and all the buildings demolished, as part of the general
retrenchment
Retrenchment (french: retrenchment, an old form of ''retranchement'', from ''retrancher'', to cut down, cut short) is an act of cutting down or reduction, particularly of public expenditure.
Political usage
The word is familiar in its most general ...
of railways in West Yorkshire at that time. However the goods shed still survives but it is incorporated in the larger DIY store. The nearby
North Eastern Railway 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'' ...
survived until 2013.
Growing traffic congestion in Leeds caused an increase in patronage from Horsforth in the 1990s, and in 2002-3, Horsforth station was extensively redeveloped to better cater for the greater number of passengers. New waiting rooms were built on both platforms, along with a ticket office on the Leeds (Up) platform, which opened on 16 July 2003. The car park was extended, using land formerly occupied by the two sidings; they still remain, in a truncated form. The station is staffed from 06:10–19:00 Mon–Sat and 09:30–16:30 Sun. Ticket machines are also provided, along with a long-line P.A system and digital information screens. Step-free access is available to both platforms.
The station is roughly 45 minutes by foot from
Leeds Bradford International Airport
Leeds Bradford Airport is located in Yeadon, in the City of Leeds Metropolitan District in West Yorkshire, England, about northwest of Leeds city centre, and about northeast from Bradford city centre. It serves Leeds and Bradford and the ...
and roughly five minutes by road.
There were plans for a neighbouring station,
Horsforth Woodside, to be built on the same line just south of Horsforth. However, a West Yorkshire Transport Feasibility Study, published in 2015, stated that the authority would not continue with plans for the new station. A turn-back facility was constructed at Horsforth station in 2012, which will permit future timetabling improvements on the line.
Services
Monday to Saturday daytimes is generally a half-hourly service stopping southbound 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 ...
and the same half-hourly service northbound to
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 ...
.
In peak hours, there are extra services to and from Leeds.
[GB National Rail Timetable, May 2019 Edition - Table 35]
In the evenings there is an hourly service in each direction. As of the December 2017 timetable change, Sundays see a very frequent service. Services to York remains hourly, but services as far as Knaresborough, and to Leeds, are now every half an hour during the day, and into the evening.
Every day there are six through
London North Eastern Railway
London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is a British train operating company. It is owned by the DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT). The company's name echoes that of the London and North Eastern Railway, one of the Big Four ...
services to
London King's Cross
King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United King ...
every two hours in each direction.
See also
*
Leeds-Northallerton Railway
References
External links
{{Railway stations served by London North Eastern Railway
Railway stations in Leeds
DfT Category F1 stations
Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849
Northern franchise railway stations
Railway stations served by London North Eastern Railway
1849 establishments in England
Horsforth