Batley railway station serves the large town of

Batley Batley is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. Batley lies south-west of Leeds, north-west of Wakefield and Dewsbury, south-east of Bradford and north-east of Huddersfield. Batley is part of the ...

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. Situated south-west of on the

main line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...

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 ...

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 ...

, the station was opened by 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 ...

in 1848. The station is now 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) ...

, who operate the service from

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 ...

Wigan Wallgate Wigan Wallgate railway station is one of two railway stations serving the town centre of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. The station serves two routes, the Manchester-Southport Line and the Manchester- Kirkby Line. It is 16 miles north-w ...

via

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 ...

. Services via Huddersfield 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 ...

Facilities

Batley railway station is unstaffed, though the main buildings on the eastbound platform (1) still stand and are used as a waiting area and entrance; a self-service ticket machine is also located there. There is a shelter on Platform 2 and both have digital display screens and timetable posters for train running information provision. Only Platform 1 has step-free access, as the subway to Platform 2 has stairways.

Services

The service here, which changed substantially in May 2018, was altered again at the December 2018 timetable change after issues with punctuality and service reliability. The net effect has been to essentially restore the pattern that formerly served the station prior to the May 2018 changes, which was one Leeds to Huddersfield stopping train per hour each way (now operated by TransPennine Express and calling at all local stations) and one Northern Trains service between Leeds,

and via Brighouse. The former Southport trains now terminate at Wigan. On Sundays, there is an hourly service to Leeds and Huddersfield.

History

The station was at one time rather larger than it is today, as it was also served by the Great Northern Railway branch line from

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

via Dewsbury Central from December 1864 to 7 September 1964, when it fell victim to the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...

. It was also the junction for branch lines to Birstall (opened in 1852, closed to passengers as a wartime economy measure in 1917 and to all traffic in 1963) and to

Tingley Tingley is a suburban village in the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, Northern England, forming part of the parish of West Ardsley. Tingley forms part of the Heavy Woollen District. It is situated between the cities of Leeds and Wakefield. ...

and Beeston (opened in 1890, closed in 1951). The station was significantly enlarged (with the addition of three extra platforms) on the opening of the latter route in August 1890, but reverted to the present twin-platform configuration after the closure and abandonment of the Bradford - Wakefield line in 1964/5. Few traces of any of these routes remain today, but the abutments of the former bridge that took the Bradford line across the line from Leeds near Batley

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'' ...

(east of the station) can still be seen. In June 2018, a protest was held by Batley and Spen MP

Tracy Brabin Tracy Lynn Brabin (born 9 May 1961) is a British politician who has served as the first Mayor of West Yorkshire since the office was established on 10 May 2021. She previously was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Batley and Spen from 2016 to 2 ...

following weeks of disruption to its services after

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 ...

announced the roll out of a new timetable. The

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

MP argued people who live in the north of the country are fed up of being at the bottom of the pile when it comes to transport investment.

Notes

Gallery

File:Batley_station_p2.jpg, Platform 2 in 2006 File:Batley Station 2018.jpg, Platform 2 in 2018 File:Batley Railway Station in November 2021.jpg, Platform 2 in 2021

External links

{{West Yorkshire railway stations Railway stations in Kirklees DfT Category F1 stations Former London and North Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Northern franchise railway stations Batley Railway stations served by TransPennine Express