Knottingley railway station 6 August 2021

Knottingley railway station serves the town of

Knottingley Knottingley is a market town in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England on the River Aire and the old A1 road before it was bypassed as the A1(M). Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 13,503, inc ...

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. It lies on the Pontefract Line, operated by Northern, and is south east of

Leeds railway station Leeds railway station (also known as Leeds City railway station) is the mainline railway station serving the city centre of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is the fourth-busiest railway station in the UK outside London (as of March 2020). I ...

. The station is the final one in West Yorkshire before the

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 ...

border and most services terminate (or start) there.

History

The station was constructed by the ''Wakefield, Pontefract & Goole Railway'' as part of their main line from

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, ...

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 ...

, which opened in April 1848. It was not long though before it became a busy junction, as within two years links to

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

via the Askern branch (on 6 June 1848),

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 popula ...

via

Castleford Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the town centre the River Calder joins th ...

and ''Methley Junction'' (1 December 1849) and

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 ...

via

Ferrybridge Ferrybridge is a village in West Yorkshire, England. Ferrybridge lies at a historically important crossing of the River Aire which borders the North Yorkshire village of Brotherton. It is linked to other communities by the A1, which follows t ...

and Burton Salmon (1 August 1850) had all been opened. The first of those was jointly built and operated by 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 Great Northern Railway and the station also became jointly managed by these two companies in 1854. The Great Northern made use of its running powers and traffic agreements with the LYR to run through trains from Doncaster to both Leeds and York, putting the town on a new main line between London & York for a number of years until shorter, more direct lines could be constructed. By 1871 the station had lost its trunk line status with the opening of new lines from Doncaster via Wakefield (to Leeds) & Selby (to York), but it still handled plenty of local passenger and freight traffic (particularly coal from a large number of collieries in the area). Whilst all of the aforementioned lines are still open, only the original WP&G routes now carry passenger trains as services to York ended on 11 July 1947 and those to Doncaster just over a year later on 27 September 1948. The line to Wakefield Kirkgate also lost its passenger trains from 2 January 1967 (leaving only the route to Leeds serving the station) but it was re-opened in May 1992 with financial assistance from West Yorkshire PTE. Services on the Leeds line were re-routed via the former NER station at Central from 7 October 1968. Regular passenger trains on the Askern line now operate once again (commencing on 23 May 2010 after an absence of more than 60 years), following the decision to grant open access operator Grand Central track access rights for a new service between London King's Cross and Bradford Interchange in January 2009. These run via the Askern line, Pontefract, Wakefield and Brighouse to reach Bradford but are not able to call at Knottingley as the old Doncaster line platforms have long been removed. Knottingley TMD is just east of the station, on the triangle of lines that go to Knottingley,

Askern Askern () is a town and civil parish within the City of Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, England. It is on the A19 road between Doncaster and Selby. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it became a spa town in the late 19th century, ...

and . It opened in 1967 to maintain the locomotives and hopper wagons for planned 75

Merry-go-round train A merry-go-round train, often abbreviated to MGR, is a block train of hopper wagons which both loads and unloads its cargo while moving. In the United Kingdom, they are most commonly coal trains delivering to power stations. These trains were ...

s a day, expected to use the Wakefield and Goole line. As much of the coal traffic has now ceased, the depot closed in 2020, but the depot lines are still used by occasional railway traffic.

Facilities

Like most of the stations on the route, Knottingley station has lost its main buildings and now only has standard waiting shelters on each of its two remaining platforms. Digital display screens, timetable posters and customer help points are located on both sides to offer train running information. Both platforms are signalled for use in either direction, so it is advisable to check the display screens prior to travel to determine which one is being used for a particular train. Step-free access is only available to platform 2 from the car park - the footbridge to platform 1 has stairs and is the only means of access to it.

Services

There is now a half-hourly service from Knottingley to since the spring 2018 timetable change. One runs via and the other via and . One train to and two trains from

run Mondays to Saturdays. On Sundays there is an hourly service to/from Leeds (alternating via Castleford and Wakefield), but no trains east of here. New Northern franchise operator

Arriva Rail North Arriva Rail North, branded as Northern by Arriva (legal name Arriva Rail North Limited) was a train operating company in Northern England which began operating the Northern franchise on 1 April 2016 and inherited units from the previous operato ...

extended the Wakefield service through to Westgate and on to via as part of the new franchise agreement that was implemented in April 2016. The Sunday service has also been doubled to hourly from May 2018, with trains running alternately via Castleford and Wakefield.

Notes

References

*Body, G. (1988), ''PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2'', Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough,

External links

{{West Yorkshire railway stations Railway stations in Wakefield DfT Category F1 stations Former Great Northern Railway stations Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Northern franchise railway stations Knottingley