Garforth railway station

Garforth railway station serves the town of Garforth, near Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is one of the two stations in Garforth the other being East Garforth which is situated about 0.5 miles east from the main station. It lies on the Selby Line. Garforth is 7.1 miles (11.5 km) east of Leeds. The station is served by Northern and TransPennine Express services.

Garforth
Garforth railway station. 185106 in Trans-pennine Express livery is passing platform 1 at speed
Location
PlaceGarforth
Local authorityCity of Leeds
Coordinates53.7966°N 1.3824°W / 53.7966; -1.3824
Grid referenceSE407335
Operations
Station codeGRF
Managed byNorthern
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryE
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 0.652 million
2015/16 0.675 million
2016/17 0.701 million
2017/18 0.661 million
2018/19 0.644 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTEWest Yorkshire Metro
Zone2
History
Key datesOpened 1834 (1834)
National Rail – UK railway stations
  • Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Garforth from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

History

The station was originally opened by the Leeds and Selby Railway in 1834. The road bridge crosses the line at an oblique angle; this was considered something of a marvel at the time of construction. The station then linked the town with the former Leeds Marsh Lane railway station. The current buildings date from 1872 and were designed by NER architect Thomas Prosser.[1]

Garforth station also connected with the privately owned Aberford Railway (known locally as the 'fly line' or simply 'the lines') which closed in 1924, and is now a public path commonly used for horses, dog walkers and travelling to and from Garforth Academy part way upon it. East of the station was the junction to the branch line to Castleford via Ledston which closed to passengers in 1951 and completely in 1969.

Garforth also has another railway station, East Garforth, situated approximately 0.56 miles (900 m) east of the main station which was opened in 1987. Though East Garforth is fully accessible to wheelchair users, the main Garforth station is not; wheelchair users can only access platform 2 which serves trains towards Leeds.

In 2015 additional shelters were placed on either platform doubling the sheltered capacity.

Facilities
The station buildings and platform 2 (Leeds bound) seen from the footbridge.

The station buildings are concentrated on the Leeds bound platform, which is disabled accessible (the opposite platform can only be accessed via footbridge).[2] There is a ticket office (open 06:00-14:00 Mondays to Saturdays) and waiting room in the buildings; the remaining space is leased out to a taxi company. The Leeds bound platform also has an automatic ticket machine that can be used out of hours and a vending machine. As well as the heated waiting room on the Leeds bound platform, there are two shelters available for use out of office hours. The York bound platform has two passenger shelters. The two platforms are connected by a footbridge with stepped access, this also links to Aberford Road. The station has a large car park which is free for passenger use; part of the car park is leased to a veterinary practice which has a compound and temporary building on this land. There is CCTV and lighting throughout the station and car park. Refreshments can purchased from the Station House Café, which opened in August 2016, and is situated on the Leeds bound platform (2).

Services

Northern operates a half-hourly service to Leeds, as well as hourly services to York and Hull via Selby to the east.[3] The Hull service began operating at the winter 2019 timetable change and runs through to Halifax via Bradford Interchange in the westbound direction, restoring the link to Bradford lost when the York to Blackpool North service ceased calling in May 2018 (this now runs express between Church Fenton and Leeds).

TransPennine Express trains also stop at Garforth hourly towards Leeds, Huddersfield and Liverpool Lime Street westbound and Scarborough eastbound.[4] The service now also stops here on Sundays since the start of the winter 2019 timetable.

Proposed services

National Express East Coast proposed to operate trains directly between Garforth and London from December 2009.[5] This proposal was supported by the Office of the Rail Regulator in January 2009, however the Department of Transport had rejected the plans because the proposal would require changes to franchised services and there was not enough capacity for these services, however Virgin Trains East Coast had plans to increase capacity and introduce a number of direct services between Garforth and London from 2019. The plans have not as yet (summer 2019) been implemented, as VTEC no longer operates the East Coast franchise and a private successor is yet to be agreed upon.

Taxis at the rank outside the station

The station has a taxi-office with taxirank outside the main buildings. Buses serve the station on Aberford Road, to which there is a direct link from the stations' footbridge.

References
  1. "Garforth"Railway Architecture of North East England; Retrieved 18 November 2016
  2. Garforth station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 29 November 2016
  3. GB eNRT, December 2019 Edition, Table 40
  4. Table 39 National Rail timetable, December 2019
  5. National Express Group PLC - National Express submits exciting proposals for new services and faster journeys Archived 6 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Leeds   TransPennine Express
North TransPennine		   York
Cross Gates   Northern
Calder Valley Line
Selby Line		   East Garforth
Disused railways
Cross Gates   NER
Castleford–Garforth line		   Kippax
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