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

Long Preston Long Preston is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England, in the Yorkshire Dales. It lies along the A65 road, and is from Skipton and from Settle. The population of Long Preston in 2001 was 680, increas ...

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) ...

. Heading west, it is the last station before the Bentham Line and

Settle and Carlisle Line Settle or SETTLE may refer to: Places * Settle, Kentucky, United States * Settle, North Yorkshire, a town in England ** Settle Rural District, a historical administrative district Music * Settle (band), an indie rock band from Pennsylvania * ''S ...

diverge at Settle Junction, situated to the north of the village.

History

The station was opened on 30 July 1849 by the

"Little" North Western Railway The North Western Railway (NWR) was an early British railway company in the north-west of England. It was commonly known as the "Little" North Western Railway, to distinguish it from the larger London and North Western Railway (LNWR). The NWR w ...

. It was 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 ...

Stationmasters

*Samuel Shaw ca. 1851 *W. Cooke until 1860 *Thomas Cheetle 1860 - 1861 *S. Hargreaves 1861 - *Henry Lewis ca. 1871 *J. Clementson until 1873 (afterwards station master at Shottle) *A. Nowell 1873 - 1874 *H. Wright 1874 - 1881 *Edwin Belfield 1881 - 1883 (formerly station master at Cotehill) *William George Mitchell 1883 - ca. 1914 *H.H. Heelis before 1931 *D. Lazonby until 1945 (afterwards station master at Clapham, Yorks.)

Facilities

Facilities at the station are somewhat basic. The original wooden station buildings were demolished in the early 1970s, and there are now just simple waiting shelters on each platform. There is an operational help point to obtain timetable information or emergency assistance. There is also a small car park. The station is unstaffed, but a ticket machine was installed in 2019 to allow travellers to buy tickets before travelling. There is level access to the southbound platform only - the opposite side has a ramp, but this is quite steep and is not recommended for use by disabled travellers. Train running information is provided by telephone, digital information screens and timetable posters.

Services

Generally, there is a train at least every two hours from Long Preston southbound towards Leeds (thirteen departures per day in total) and northbound. All services from Leeds to Lancaster (eight per day) stop there, along with four Leeds to Carlisle trains. There is also one train each day that runs north only as far as

Ribblehead Ribblehead is the area of moorland at the head of the River Ribble in the area known as Ribblesdale, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, England. Ribblehead is most notable for Ribblehead railway station and Ribblehead Viaduct on the Settl ...

, whilst five Lancaster trains continue to Morecambe and the last southbound train terminates at Skipton.GB eNRT December 2019 Edition, Table 42 (Network Rail) For many years on Sundays, only Leeds - Morecambe trains stopped at Long Preston. However, since 2009, certain Carlisle trains have also served the station on Sundays. As a result, there are now five trains to Lancaster/Morecambe and two to Carlisle northbound and nine trains to Leeds southbound (the two morning/early afternoon services on the Morecambe line that formerly ran in summer only up until 2010 now run throughout the year). The station also now has an afternoon departure that runs through to Sheffield and and a single service to in the late morning.

References

Sources

* Bairstow, M. (2000), ''The 'Little' North Western Railway'', Martin Bairstow, Leeds,

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