Ravensthorpe railway station serves the

Ravensthorpe Ravensthorpe may refer to any of the following places. England *Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury in West Yorkshire **Ravensthorpe railway station, Dewsbury *Ravensthorpe, Northamptonshire *Ravensthorpe, Peterborough in Cambridgeshire *Ravensthorpe, an histor ...

suburb of

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

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 situated on the

Huddersfield line The Huddersfield line is the main railway line between the English cities of Leeds and Manchester, via Huddersfield. It is one of the busiest MetroTrain lines. The route travels south-south-west from Leeds through Dewsbury. After a short west ...

between

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

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, north east of

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

. The station is 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) ...

, although all services are currently provided by

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 c ...

. Ravensthorpe station is situated just north-east of Thornhill LNW (London North Western) Junction, where a line branches to Wakefield Kirkgate. There are plans to rebuild the station to the west of the junction, on the route built by the former

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 ...

History

Ravensthorpe was a late addition to the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

, with the station and goods shed built in 1890 to attract freight traffic in the area. The line itself had opened some 42 years earlier. Originally, the station was called "Ravensthorpe and Thornhill" as L&Y had opened a station,

, on their railway branch between Thornhill and

Heckmondwike Heckmondwike is a town in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England, south west of Leeds. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is close to Cleckheaton and Liversedge. It is mostly in the Batley and Spen pa ...

Future plans

As part of a wider upgrade to the route between Huddersfield and Dewsbury,

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 ...

propose to partially grade separate the junction between the two lines and increase capacity for express trains by 4-tracking the route to the west. The new junction design would move the alignment of the Leeds route slightly to the south, meaning the existing station would have to be largely demolished and rebuilt. Network Rail therefore plan to abandon the current station site, and build a replacement approximately to the west, which would turn Ravensthorpe into a

junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated on or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines. At a station with platforms running from left to right, the minimum ...

, allowing trains to and from Wakefield to call in addition to the existing Leeds services. A TWAO -Transport Work Act Order was submitted for the 4-tracking in April 2021. The

Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands The Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands or more simply, the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP), is a United Kingdom government proposal published on 18 November 2021. It aims to deliver "increased capacity, faster journeys or more frequent ser ...

(IRP) announced November 2021, calls for full

electrification 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 histor ...

of the line and thus the station..

Facilities

Ravensthorpe station is unstaffed. The former station buildings, having been damaged by fire, were demolished and replaced with basic shelters. There are no facilities to purchase tickets and so passengers must purchase tickets on the train. There are timetable posters and a telephone available to obtain train running information, along with digital information screens. Step-free access is limited to the eastbound platform, as the westbound platform can only be reached by steps. Ravensthorpe is one of West Yorkshire's least used stations due to its relatively remote location, although it does also serve the nearby village of Thornhill.

Services

Ravensthorpe is served each day (including Sundays) by an hourly TransPennine Express service running between

and

. This replaced the former local Northern-run Leeds to Huddersfield stopping service at the May 2018 timetable change. A limited number of weekday peak Northern services between Leeds and

Manchester Victoria Manchester Victoria station in Manchester, England is a combined mainline railway station and Metrolink tram stop. Situated to the north of the city centre on Hunts Bank, close to Manchester Cathedral, it adjoins Manchester Arena which was ...

via Brighouse also stop here.

References

Gallery

File:Ravensthorpe_station_p2.jpg, Platform 2.

External links

Railway stations in Kirklees DfT Category F2 stations Former London and North Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1890 Northern franchise railway stations Railway stations served by TransPennine Express {{Yorkshire-Humber-railstation-stub