Arthington railway station

Arthington railway station served the village of Arthington in the English county of West Yorkshire, near the North Yorkshire town of Harrogate.

History

Opened by the Leeds Northern Railway, as part of the North Eastern Railway it was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The line then passed on to the Eastern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948, closing under that management.

The site today

There have been two stations at Arthington. The original, which opened in 1849, was sited south of the main road near to the Wharfedale Inn. The second station was built to serve the Otley branch which opened in 1865, superseding the first station.
The former station is now a private residence. The two sides of the railway triangle that lay to the north of the station have been dismantled. Trains still pass the eastern part of the triangle on the Harrogate Line.

Proposed station

A station has been proposed to re-open on this site to alleviate road traffic into Leeds along the parallel A roads. West Yorkshire Combined Authority declined to push forward with the plans for Arthington Parkway. Reasons cited are the severity of the gradient at the site, insufficient car parking space and lack of suitable road infrastructure for a Park and Ride facility. Local campaigners refute these claims citing that there was a station on the site before and that the report wrongly places the station on the old trackbed of the now closed Otley railway line.