Saltburn railway station

Saltburn railway station serves the town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is the terminus of the Tees Valley Line and is operated by Northern Trains who provide all passenger train services.

Saltburn
Location
PlaceSaltburn-by-the-Sea
Local authorityRedcar and Cleveland
Coordinates54.5835°N 0.9740°W / 54.5835; -0.9740
Grid referenceNZ664214
Operations
Station codeSLB
Managed byNorthern Trains
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryF1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 0.254 million
2015/16 0.250 million
2016/17 0.244 million
2017/18 0.237 million
2018/19 0.241 million
National Rail – UK railway stations
  • Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Saltburn from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

It is unmanned, and has two acrylic glass passenger shelters, bench seating and an electronic information board. A self-service ticket machine has also been installed to allow intending passenger to buy tickets prior to travel or collect pre-paid tickets. Step-free access is available from the main entrance to both platforms.[1]

Station facilities here were improved in Summer 2012. The package for this station included new waiting shelters, decorative planting schemes, renewed station signage, a digital information screen displaying live departures, and the installation of CCTV. The long-line Public Address system (PA) has been renewed and upgraded with pre-recorded train announcements.

History

The station was opened by the Stockton and Darlington Railway as the terminus of their line from Redcar on 17 August 1861 (although the ornate station building was not finished until the following year). Eleven years later, the North Eastern Railway opened a line towards Brotton (the Whitby Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway)[2] from the town, but this diverged from the original route some 440 yards (400 m) west of the 1861 station in order to avoid excessively steep gradients further east. This meant the passenger trains from the town to Loftus and Whitby that started in 1875 had to reverse into and out of the terminus before regaining the correct direction at Saltburn West Junction. This line is still in operation today to serve the Skinningrove Steelworks and the Boulby potash mine, although passenger trains ceased in 1958.

In its heyday, the station had four platforms and a sizeable number of carriage sidings to handle the large quantities of excursion trains that ran there - these included services from as far away as Leeds and Blackpool.[3] There was also a short siding extension (approximately 300 yards (270 m)) from the main station to another platform at the rear of the railway-owned Zetland Hotel (opened in 1863) where passengers in first class carriages could disembark directly into their accommodation.

A 1974 remodelling scheme [4] saw the station reduced in size however, with the two main platforms & signal box being taken out of use along with most of the sidings and one of the two running lines from West Junction. Today both of the two surviving excursion bay platforms are used for scheduled services (though most trains use platform 1) but neither the main station building nor the Zetland Hotel is in rail-related use - the former having been converted into a photographic studio, cafe and various other retail outlets and the latter into luxury flats.

Services

Northern Trains Route 3:
Bishop & Tees Valley Lines
Bishop Auckland
Shildon
Newton Aycliffe
Heighington
North Road
Darlington
Dinsdale
Teesside Airport
Allens West
Northallerton to Eaglescliffe Line
Eaglescliffe
Thornaby
Middlesbrough
Esk Valley Line to Whitby
South Bank
British Steel Redcar
Redcar Central
Redcar East
Longbeck
Marske
Saltburn
There are currently no trains calling at
British Steel Redcar until further notice.

There is a half-hourly service (Mondays to Saturdays) from the station to Middlesbrough and Darlington, with one train per hour continuing to Bishop Auckland. Outside of this usual pattern there are also two early morning through services to Carlisle via Durham and Newcastle along with one morning arrival from Hexham which comes via Newcastle and Sunderland. From December 2019, there'll be one additional a.m service running to Nunthorpe via Middlesbrough.

On Sundays the service starts later and there is an hourly service to Middlesbrough, Darlington and Bishop Auckland (but note that the service to Bishop Auckland finishes early in the evening).[5]

Notes

  1. Saltburn station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 3 February 2017
  2. Body, p. 146
  3. Binns, p. 31
  4. Hunt, J - Article in RAIL Magazine, Issue 610 (January 2009); p.49
  5. "Electronic National Rail Timetable, Table 44". Network Rail. Retrieved 31 May 2018.

References

  • Binns, D. (1981), Railways Around Skipton, Wyvern Publications, Skipton.
  • Body, G. (1988), PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, ISBN 1-85260-072-1
Preceding station   National Rail   Following station
TerminusNorthern Trains
Tees Valley Line
This station offers access to the Cleveland Way
Distance to path
Next station anticlockwiseKildale 8 miles
Next station clockwiseWhitby 19 miles
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