Whitley Bay is a

Tyne and Wear Metro The Tyne and Wear Metro is an overground and underground light rail rapid transit system serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and the City of Sunderland (together forming Tyne and Wear). The network opened in ...

station, serving the coastal town of

Whitley Bay Whitley Bay is a seaside town in the North Tyneside borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It formerly governed as part of Northumberland and has been part of Tyne and Wear since 1974. It is part of the wider Tyneside built-up area, being around eas ...

North Tyneside North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It forms part of the greater Tyneside conurbation. North Tyneside Council is headquartered at Cobalt Park, Wallsend. North Tyneside is bordered b ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...

, England. It joined the network on 11 August 1980, following the opening of the first phase of the network, between

Haymarket Haymarket may refer to: Places Australia * Haymarket, New South Wales, area of Sydney, Australia Germany * Heumarkt (KVB), transport interchange in Cologne on the site of the Heumarkt (literally: hay market) Russia * Sennaya Square (''Hay Squ ...

and

Tynemouth Tynemouth () is a coastal town in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, North East England. It is located on the north side of the mouth of the River Tyne, hence its name. It is 8 mi (13 km) east-northeast of Newcastle upon T ...

via Four Lane Ends.

History

In 1860, the

Blyth and Tyne Railway The Blyth and Tyne Railway was a railway company in Northumberland, England, incorporated by Act of Parliament on 30 June 1852. It was created to unify the various private railways and waggonways built to carry coal from the Northumberland coalf ...

opened the line from

to Dairy House Junction, situated south of the village of

Hartley Hartley may refer to: Places Australia *Hartley, New South Wales *Hartley, South Australia **Electoral district of Hartley, a state electoral district Canada *Hartley Bay, British Columbia United Kingdom *Hartley, Cumbria *Hartley, Plymou ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

. The original station serving the coastal town was named ''Whitley'', and was located around west of the present station. However, this station was only open for four years, being closed in June 1864 and replaced by a station to the north, adjacent to the present day station at

Monkseaton Monkseaton is an area of Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, in the North East of England. Historically in Northumberland, it is in the north-east of the borough, from the North Sea coast and north of the River Tyne at North Shields. to the north of ...

. On 3 July 1882, the North Eastern Railway opened the coastal route between Monkseaton and Tynemouth, replacing the inland Blyth and Tyne Railway route. A new station, designed by William Bell, was opened the same year. Also known as ''Whitley'', the station was renamed ''Whitley Bay'' on 1 July1899. From 1904, the station was served by the electric trains of the North Eastern Railway.J.C Gillham, ''The Age of the Electric Train - Electric Trains in Britain since 1883'', Ian Allan, 1988, p.36-7. The electric services became so popular with people living in Whitley Bay and travelling to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

to work, and also with those visiting the town for a day out or a holiday, that a new station became a necessity. The new building opened in October 1910. Architectural historian

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

later said of the building that it "(lends) some distinction to an undistinguished neighbourhood". The ''

Tyneside Electrics The Tyneside Electrics were the suburban railways on Tyneside that the North Eastern Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway electrified using the third rail system. The North Tyneside Loop was electrified from 1904 onwards and formed o ...

'' were withdrawn by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

in 1967, and replaced by

diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

trains. The diesel trains provided a slower service, and trains called at intervals of every 30 minutes instead of every 20, although a limited-stop express service also called every hour. In preparation for its second conversion to electric train operation, this time to join the

system, the station lost its services towards Newcastle via Monkseaton on 23 January 1978, and was closed completely on 10 September 1979. It reopened on 11 August 1980, the first day of Metro service. The main changes involved in the station's conversion were shortening of the

train shed A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...

at each end of the platforms and replacement of the original footbridge, with no further major changes having been made as of 2014. The station's main building and train shed were given Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

status in 1986.

Facilities

The station has two platforms, both of which have ticket machines (which accept cash, card and

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsun ...

), smartcard validators, seating, next train audio and visual displays, timetable and information posters and an emergency help point. There is step-free access to both platforms by accessible footbridge, with platforms also linked by a second footbridge, which replaced the original with

latticework __NOTOC__ Latticework is an openwork framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of building material, typically wood or metal. The design is created by crossing the strips to form a grid or weave. Latticework may be functional &nda ...

sides. The station has free car park, with 76 spaces. There is also cycle storage at the station, with eight cycle lockers and eight cycle pods.

Services

, the station is served by up to five trains per hour on weekdays and Saturday, and up to four trains per hour during the evening and on Sunday between

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...

and St James via Whitley Bay. Rolling stock used: Class 599 ''Metrocar''

Art

* The station features the ''Passing'' (1983) art installation. Designed by Ian Patience, it is located in the entrance hall to the westbound platform. It depicts a family on a day trip to the beach, and also shows a nocturnal seascape in the central panel.

References

Notes

External links

*
Timetable and station information
for Whitley Bay {{Tyne and Wear Metro network Grade II listed buildings in Tyne and Wear Grade II listed railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1882 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1910 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1980 Whitley Bay William Bell railway stations Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations