Doncaster railway station


Doncaster railway station is a principal stop on the East Coast Main Line, serving the city of Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, England. It is down the line from and is situated between and on the main line. It is managed by London North Eastern Railway. It is the second-busiest station in South Yorkshire and the fourth-busiest in Yorkshire & the Humber.
It is a major passenger interchange between the main line, Cross Country Route and local services running across Northern England. It is also the point for which London North Eastern Railway services branching off to diverge from the main route, which continues north towards.

History

The station was built in 1850, replacing a temporary structure constructed two years earlier and located some further south. Between 1850 and 1873, the station had two main platforms, with loops to each platform diverting off the main running lines.
It was rebuilt in its present form in 1938, where the platform on the townside of the station was converted into an island platform thereby creating a fourth through running line. The station has had several slight modifications since that date: in 1976, a project to refurbish the passenger facilities was completed at a cost of £125,000 and, in 2006, the new interchange and connection to Frenchgate Centre opened.
The station was evacuated and services on the East Coast Main Line stopped in March 1997 due to a bomb hoax called in by the IRA. Actual bombs were left at station in Cheshire on the same day.
In May 2015, construction commenced on a new platform 0 to the north-east of the station adjacent to the Frenchgate Centre on the site of the former cattle dock. It is used by terminating Northern Trains services to Hull, Beverley, Bridlington and Scarborough. This allowed these services to operate independently of the East Coast Main Line. It is joined to the rest of the station via a fully accessible overbridge.

Accidents and incidents

  • On 9 August 1947, a passenger train was in a rear-end collision with another due to a signalman's error. 18 people were killed and 188 were injured.
  • On 16 March 1951, a derailment occurred south of the station in which 14 passengers were killed and 12 seriously injured.

Platforms

The station has nine platforms on three islands: platforms 1, 3, 4 and 8 can take through trains; platforms 2 and 5 are south-facing bays; and platforms 0, 6 and 7 are north-facing bays. A first class lounge is available on platform 3A.
There were plans to add platforms 9 and 10 to cope with Eurostar trains, but this project was cancelled when it was decided that Eurostar would not serve Britain outside South East England.
There are presently no ticket barriers in operation at this station; however, on race days at Doncaster Racecourse, manual ticket checks are in operation in the subway.
The station was refurbished in 2006 and is now directly connected to the Frenchgate Centre extension in Doncaster town centre. The station now has a new booking office for tickets and information, three new lifts, refurbished staircases and subway. There is a newsagent and some food outlets. More recently, interactive touch screens have been installed around the station by London North Eastern Railway services to provide information about local attractions, live departures and disruptions and station facilities. In addition, mobile phone charging points are now available on the concourse, touch screen and self-service ticketing machines have been installed across the concourse; the stairways to the subway have now been divided into two way systems to improve the flow of passengers during peak times.
In a route study by Network Rail, it was proposed that new platforms could be built on the western side of the station to meet expected demand in the future.
In March 2019, it was revealed that there were plans, as part of the East Coast improvement programme in Control Period 6, to add an additional platform at Doncaster.

Services

Seven train operating companies call at Doncaster, which is the joint highest number in the UK with Crewe, Edinburgh Waverley, Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool South Parkway. Their off-peak weekday service patterns are as follows:
CrossCountry

  • 6 tpd to, of which:
  • * 4 tpd continue to Newcastle, via and
  • 4 tpd to, via, Birmingham New Street and
  • 1 tpd to via and.
East Midlands Railway

Grand Central

  • 4 tpd to
  • 4 tpd to via, and .
Hull Trains

  • 7 tpd to London King's Cross, via and
  • 7 tpd to Hull Paragon, via, and, of which:
  • * 2 tpd continue to via.
London North Eastern Railway

  • 3 1/2tph to London King's Cross, of which:
  • * 1 tp2h slow via Retford
  • * 3 tph semi-fast
  • 2 tph to via, of which:
  • * 1 tp2h continue to, via
  • * 1 tp2h continue to, via
  • * 1 tpd continues to, via
  • 1 tph to, via, and
  • 1 tp2h to York
  • 1 tpd to Hull Paragon, via Selby and Brough.
  • 1 tpd to, via York, Darlington and Newcastle.
Northern Trains

  • 2 tph to Sheffield, of which:
  • * 1 tph slow via, and Meadowhall Interchange
  • * 1 tph semi-fast via Meadowhall Interchange
  • 1 tp2h to via, and
  • 2 tph to Hull Paragon, of which:
  • * 1 tph continues to, via, and, and operates semi-fast to Hull Paragon
  • 1 tph to, via
  • 1 tph to Leeds, via Adwick, and Wakefield Westgate.
TransPennine Express

  • 1 tph to, via Sheffield, and
  • 1 tph to, via, and.