Horsforth railway station

The station in 1988

The station (accessed from Station Road, Horsforth) serves Horsforth, Cookridge and Tinshill and was opened in 1849. In 1969 it was unstaffed and all the buildings demolished as part of the general retrenchment of railways in West Yorkshire at that time. The nearby North Eastern Railway signal box survived until 2013.

Growing traffic congestion in Leeds promoted an increased traffic from Horsforth in the 1990s, and in 2002/3 Horsforth station was extensively redeveloped to better cater for the greater number of passengers. New waiting rooms were built on both platforms, along with a ticket office on the Leeds (Up) platform which opened on 16 July 2003. The car park was extended, using land formerly occupied by the two sidings; these still remain, in a truncated form. The station is staffed from 06:10–19:00 Mon–Sat and 09:30–16:30 Sun. Ticket machines are also provided, along with a long-line P.A system and digital information screens. Step-free access is available to both platforms.[1]

The station is roughly 45 minutes by foot from Leeds Bradford International Airport and is roughly 5 minutes by road.

There had been plans for a neighbouring station, Horsforth Woodside, to be built on the same line just south of the station. However a West Yorkshire Transport Feasibility Study published in 2015 stated that the authority would discontinue with plans for the new station.[2] A turn-back facility for Horsforth station was constructed in 2012. This allows timetabling improvements to the line in future.[3][4][5]

Monday to Saturday daytimes is generally a half-hourly service stopping southbound to Leeds and a half-hourly service northbound to Knaresborough with one train per hour onwards to York. Since the May 2019 timetable change, an additional express service in each direction operates every hour during the day (express to/from Leeds and thence calling only at Hornbeam Park en-route to Harrogate).

In peak hours, there are extra services to and from Leeds.[6] The new Northern franchise (that started in April 2016) will see additional services running as far as Harrogate throughout the day (3tph from May 2019 with a fourth to follow) and a more frequent service from here in both directions as a result (up from 2 per hour to 4 on weekdays, plus one extra per hour to Harrogate & Knaresborough on Sundays).[7]

In the evenings there is an hourly service in each direction. As of the December 2017 timetable change, Sundays see a very frequent service. Services to York remains hourly, but services as far as Knaresborough, and to Leeds, are now every half an hour during the day, and into the evening.

Every morning between Mondays and Saturdays, there is one direct London North Eastern Railway service to London King's Cross in the Leeds direction only. The evening return service passes through the station non-stop.

Panorama of Horsforth station

• Leeds-Northallerton Railway

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Horsforth railway station.

• Train times and station information for Horsforth railway station from National Rail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Headingley		Northern Harrogate Line		Weeton
Leeds		London North Eastern Railway London to Harrogate (Limited service)		Harrogate