Starbeck is a railway station on the Harrogate Line, which runs between and via . The station, situated west of York, serves the suburb of Starbeck,

Borough of Harrogate The Borough of Harrogate is a local government district with borough status in North Yorkshire, England. Its population at the census of 2011 was 157,869. Its council is based in the town of Harrogate, but it also includes surrounding towns and ...

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. 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 len ...

and managed by

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 ...

Background

The station dates from 1 September 1848 and was the first to serve Harrogate. Initially, intending passengers had to make the connection from the town on foot or by horse bus, as the Leeds and Thirsk Railway had elected to take an easily graded route to the east, rather than cross the

Crimple Valley Crimple Valley is an area south of Harrogate (North Yorkshire) surrounding the River Crimple (also known as Crimple Beck). It gave its name to the synthetic yarn Crimplene Crimplene is a texturised continuous fibre launched in 1959, produced ...

and serve the town itself. The line on to

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the ...

and

Thirsk Thirsk is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England known for its racecourse; quirky yarnbomber displays, and depiction as local author James Herriot's fictional Darrowby. History Archeological ...

was opened the following July, with a further line to

Knaresborough Knaresborough ( ) is a market and spa town and civil parish in the Borough of Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, England, on the River Nidd. It is east of Harrogate. History Knaresborough is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Chenar ...

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 ...

opened by the

East and West Yorkshire Junction Railway The East and West Yorkshire Junction Railway was a railway company established in 1846 between the Leeds and Thirsk Railway at Knaresborough and the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway near York, England. The company merged into the York and No ...

on 1 October 1851. However, it was not until both companies had been absorbed by the North Eastern Railway some years later that the issue of a link into the centre of Harrogate was addressed, with a route via Dragon Junction to a new central station (and on via Crimple Valley Viaduct to Pannal Junction) being commissioned on 1 August 1862. This new loop soon became the preferred route for most through traffic between Leeds and Teesside, leaving Starbeck to be served primarily by York trains although some freight and excursion traffic continued to use the original L&T line for many years. Services on the old line to Pannal ended in October 1951, whilst the Leeds Northern main line to Ripon and

Northallerton Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It had a population of 16,832 in the 2011 census, an increa ...

was closed to passengers in March 1967 and completely two years later. The station at one time had canopies and substantial buildings, but these have been demolished. The

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' ...

remains in use to supervise a busy

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 ...

. There are proposals to create another station between Starbeck and Harrogate at Bilton.

Facilities

The station is unstaffed, but has ticket machines available. Shelters, timetable information boards and digital information screens are located on each platform – these are linked by a subway with ramps, so both have step-free access. Running information is also offered by means of automatic P.A announcements.

Services

As of the May 2021 timetable change, the station is served by two trains per hour between Leeds and Knaresborough, with one train per hour extending to York. Additional services operate at peak times. During the evening and on Sunday, an hourly service operates between Leeds and York. All services are operated by

. Rolling stock used: Class 158 ''Express Sprinter'' and Class 170 ''Turbostar''

References

Sources

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

External links

* * {{Railway stations served by Northern Trains Railway stations in Harrogate DfT Category F1 stations Former York and North Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Northern franchise railway stations 1848 establishments in England