Castleford railway station
Castleford railway station serves the town of Castleford, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the Hallam and Pontefract lines, south-east of.
In February 2016, West Yorkshire Metro opened the new Castleford bus station close to the railway station, featuring an integrated and staffed transport interchange. Work on the new £6 million bus station was started in October 2014.
History
The current station was built by the North Eastern Railway in 1871 to replace an earlier one to the east built by the York and North Midland Railway on their line from York to and opened on 1 July 1840. A short time later, an east to north curve was constructed between Whitwood and Methley junctions to create the first through route between York and – it would remain the primary route between the two cities until 1869 and also carry services between Leeds and Hull for a number of years thanks to the machinations of George Hudson.The town gained a second station at Cutsyke in 1860, courtesy of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway whose line from Pontefract Monkhill to Methley Junction had opened in 1849 and passed over the Y&NMR line near Whitwood Junction. Further construction work by both companies saw lines built to Lofthouse via Stanley in 1865, to Garforth via Ledston in 1878 and a curve linking the Y&NM and L&Y routes in the town two years later. This latter piece of line was seldom used for much of its life but now forms an important part of the line towards Knottingley.
Thus by the end of the nineteenth century, the station had an impressive range of services to choose from, with regular links to Leeds, Wakefield and on towards, through the Calder Valley as well as to York. Longer distance destinations were also available by means of a change at Normanton.
By the early 1950s, however, the local network began to decline, with the Garforth line the first to lose its passenger trains on 22 January 1951. The Methley Joint line fell victim to the Beeching Axe on 2 November 1964 whilst the L&Y station at Cutsyke suffered a similar fate on 7 October 1968 – trains from Pontefract thereafter using the aforementioned curve to reach Central, where they reversed before continuing to Leeds via Whitwood Junction.
Another significant change was the withdrawal of services on the original Y&NMR line between York and Wakefield on 5 January 1970, leaving the station to be served by trains on the Pontefract Line; although a handful of summer dated trains from Wakefield to York and continued to run until 1988. This created the current situation whereby almost all scheduled trains calling there, apart from the Manchester to York trains, approach from the west, use a single platform and have to reverse to continue their journeys. Another development was the re-routing of trains on the Hallam line via the town in 1988, which reinstated the link with Wakefield and also gave passengers access to direct trains to and.
The station had substantial buildings on both platforms until the 1970s, but these were mostly demolished ; one structure survived at the northern end of the remaining platform but not in passenger use. The old station signal box also remains, though it too is boarded up and disused.
A redevelopment of the station took place in 2020 with the construction of new station buildings and an enlarged car park. In November 2021, work began to restore the second platform. A new footbridge with lifts has been built to enable step-free access. The new footbridge was installed in October 2022 and was opened with the December 2023 timetable change.
Although Castleford was built originally as a through station, regular passenger services towards were discontinued between 5 January 1970 and December 2023. All Northern Trains services calling at the station reverse here, arriving and departing from the former northbound platform 1. TransPennine Express operates through services, using platforms 1 and 2. Platform 2 had previously been brought back into temporary use during the Leeds First project in 2002; Trans-Pennine services between York and were diverted to avoid engineering work in Leeds, routed via, Castleford and. Platform 2 has subsequently been restored to permanent use and rebuilt with a new footbridge to enable step-free access, in order to accommodate extra services as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade project.
Facilities
The station is unstaffed, though the Metro travel centre within the nearby bus station is staffed from 08:30 each day until 16:00 on weekdays and 14:30 on Saturdays ; this sells a full range of rail tickets. A self-service ticket machine is provided for use outside of these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. A waiting room is available on the platform, along with a digital information screen and timetable poster board; automated train announcements also offer running information for passengers. Step-free access is available from the car park to the platform.Services
Northern Trains
On Mondays to Saturdays, the following service pattern operates in trains per hour:- 2tph to,
- 1tph to, via
- 1tph to.
TransPennine Express
- 1tph operates in each direction between and.