Skipton Railway Station

Skipton railway station is a Grade II listed station which serves the town of Skipton in North Yorkshire, England on the Airedale Line, which gives Skipton access to destinations such as Leeds, Bradford, Carlisle, Lancaster and Morecambe. The station is operated by Northern and is situated 27 miles (43 km) north-west of Leeds.

The station has four platforms. It is staffed on a part-time basis and a ticket office is available at most times (along with automatic ticket machines). Ticket barriers are in operation and a Penalty fare scheme was implemented on the Airedale Line routes in December 2017. Step-free access is available to all platforms from the station entrance (platforms 3 and 4 via subway). Skipton comes under the Dales Railcard. There are three seated waiting rooms available, luggage trolleys, a small café, toilets, a post box and a pay-phone. There is a taxi rank immediately outside the station, bus links nearby and the car park has spaces for 100 vehicles. The station is located on Broughton Road.

History
As the "Gateway to the Yorkshire Dales", Skipton historically has had high volumes of leisure traffic. Ilkley railway station serves as an alternative for this function being at the southern end of the Dales Way.

The original station was opened on 7 September 1847 by the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway, as a temporary terminus of its line from Bradford. The line was extended to Colne a year later on 2 October 1848.[4]

Initially, passengers would leave the train at Skipton for onward travel to the villages of Wharfedale by horse-drawn coach. There are still over 20 hotels clustered around the station, including the historic Herriots Hotel (formerly the Midland Hotel).[7]

The next year, the "little" North Western Railway opened a line from Skipton to Ingleton on 30 July 1849 (which was eventually extended to Lancaster and Morecambe in 1850).[5]

On 30 April 1876, Skipton station was relocated a quarter of a mile northwest of its original location.[8] By now, both the Leeds and Bradford and North Western railways had been absorbed by the Midland Railway. The new station coincided with the opening of the Midland's Settle-Carlisle Line, which made Skipton a station on the London St Pancras to Glasgow main line.[9][10] The new station had four platforms and cost over £15,000,[8] compared with the original station's cost of £2,300.[4] Platform 1 was a bay platform at the Bradford end, adjacent to the station building along with through platform 2, while platforms 3 and 4 formed an island platform.[11]

On 1 October 1888 platforms 5 and 6 were added to serve the Skipton to Ilkley Line, which opened that day. These platforms were at a slightly higher level on a rising gradient, as the new line ran southwest of the existing line and then crossed over it by bridge eastwards. These platforms were also later used by the Yorkshire Dales Railway, a short branch to Grassington from 1902 to 1930. Passenger services to Ilkley ceased on 22 March 1965 after which platforms 5 and 6 were closed to passengers and their access subway was bricked off. However, the line through platform 5 is still in use as a single-track freight line to Swinden Quarry via the former Yorkshire Dales line. The track through platform 6 has been lifted.[14]

The line to Colne closed on 2 February 1970 and its tracks were lifted the following year. The disused formation is still visible, though the A629 bypass road occupies a short section immediately west of the former junction with the line to Carlisle & Lancaster. An organisation called SELRAP is campaigning for the re-instatement of the link and runs occasional charter trains between the two stations, using a long diversionary route to point out the eleven mile "missing link."

In the 1970s, the track was removed from platform 1, and platform 4 was used as a siding. However, all four platforms were put back in use when the track layout and signalling were updated in 1994 for electrification. As part of this work, both remaining signal boxes were closed and demolished (control initially passing to Leeds PSB and eventually to the IECC at York) and the former goods yard was converted for use as a carriage depot (complete with a new washer plant). This was upgraded and expanded in 2011 to add capacity for a further three units. Several EMU and DMU sets are stored there overnight and at weekends.

In 1998, the station underwent complete renovation, in preparation for the introduction of direct InterCity services to London. In 2004 the station underwent another minor renovation in preparation for a visit by Prince Charles. Following a change of cleaning contract in early 2007, users of the station began to complain about an alleged deterioration in cleanliness at the station, particularly in the waiting rooms.

The station is used for the overnight servicing of trains. On 9 August 2003, an Arriva Trains Northern employee was seriously assaulted by a group of vandals after challenging two males daubing graffiti on a stabled train.

Skipton railway station is currently the terminus of the 280/X80 cross-Pennine bus routes to Preston. It has been proposed as the focus of a park-and-ride scheme serving commuters to Lancaster and Leeds.