Seamer railway station serves the village of Seamer in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four co ...

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 ...

. It lies near the end of the Scarborough branch on the TransPennine Express North TransPennine route, east of

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 ...

at its junction with the northern end of the

Yorkshire Coast Line Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

. Seamer station is managed 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 ci ...

, with services being run by both

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

and TransPennine Express. The station is actually sited between the communities of Eastfield and Crossgates, about one mile from Seamer. It took the name of Seamer since there was already a Cross Gates railway station in West Yorkshire.

History

Seamer station was opened on 7 July 1845 by the York and North Midland Railway and became a junction station when a branch line to Filey was opened the following year (5 October 1846). Its

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular o ...

configuration was chosen to make it easier for passengers to change between the two routes here rather than continuing into Scarborough to do so. A second branch line from the station (the

Forge Valley Line The Forge Valley Line was a 16 mile long branch of the North Eastern Railway between Seamer (near Scarborough, North Yorkshire) and Pickering. The line was intended to link Scarborough with Pickering. It opened in 1882 and closed in 1950, w ...

to Pickering) was opened by the NER on 1 May 1882 - the station subsequently underwent improvements (including the construction of a second signal box and an additional passenger line & platform) in 1911 to accommodate the extra traffic. The Forge Valley line was never particularly busy and it was an early victim of road competition, closing to passengers on 5 June 1950 (less than three years after the nationalisation of the railway system). The track was lifted by 1953 and the additional platform and slow line here was removed soon afterwards. The former station house on the down (eastern) side next to the

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...

(which has been pedestrian only since the late 1980s) still stands, though no longer in rail usage (now a private residence).

Facilities

The station currently only has basic facilities, such as a large shelter on the island platforms, as well as passenger information screens towards the middle of the platforms. The station is unstaffed, but a ticket machine is provided. Step-free access to the platform is via a foot

at the north end - this is supervised from the nearby

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' ...

Services

TransPennine Express

From Seamer Monday to Saturdays there are up to two trains per hour eastbound to Scarborough and westbound generally an hourly TransPennine Express service to

, with two-hourly extensions 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 popul ...

and

Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Piccadilly is the principal railway station in Manchester, England. Opened as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchester Piccadilly in 1960. Located to the south-east of Manchester city ...

. Through trains to Liverpool Lime Street had been reduced significantly following the COVID-19 pandemic and were finally withdrawn at the December 2022 timetable change. On Sundays, the same service pattern applies.

Northern Trains

operates an hourly service to

Bridlington Bridlington is a coastal town and a civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is about north of Hull and east of York. The Gypsey Race enters the North Sea at its harbour. The 2011 ...

and

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

on the Yorkshire Coast Line. On Sundays, these continue to and . From the next timetable change in December 2019, these will also do so on weekdays and Saturdays. Until

Northern Rail Northern Rail, branded as Northern, was an English train operating company owned by Serco-Abellio that operated the Northern Rail franchise from 2004 until 2016. It was the primary passenger train operator in Northern England, and operated th ...

took over in 2004,

Arriva Trains Northern Arriva Trains Northern was a train operating company in England owned by Arriva that operated the Regional Railways North East franchise from March 1997 until December 2004. Arriva resumed operating Northern train services again on 1 April 201 ...

did have services that stopped at Seamer, the current

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and is ...

service used to continue to Scarborough alongside TransPennine Express services. This service was usually worked by a Metro liveried Class 158 DMU, occasionally a Class 155 DMU. There was also a local service from York to Scarborough usually worked by a Pacer DMU or a Class 156. The new TransPennine & Northern franchises (which started in April 2016) was to see service frequency and rolling stock improvements implemented on both routes - the Hull line will have an hourly frequency throughout the week (now implemented), whilst the York line will have two trains per hour on weekdays (one Northern, one TPE) and an hourly service on Sundays. Trains to Liverpool will continue, but they will be diverted 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 co ...

and . The change to TPE routing took effect in 2018, but Northern's plans for a York service are currently on hold due to a shortage of rolling stock."New train service for Malton and Norton delayed"
Dunning, D ''Minster FM'' news article 15 October 2019; Retrieved 19 November 2019

Route

References

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

External links

{{Railway stations in the Borough of Scarborough Railway stations in the Borough of Scarborough DfT Category F2 stations Former York and North Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1845 Railway stations served by TransPennine Express Northern franchise railway stations Stations on the Hull to Scarborough line George Townsend Andrews railway stations