Everything about Wakefield Kirkgate Railway Station totally explained
Wakefield Kirkgate Railway Station is a
Railway station in
Wakefield,
West Yorkshire,
England. It is older than the nearby
Westgate station which serves a lot more destinations, especially places further afield. It is on the
Hallam,
Pontefract and
Huddersfield lines.
The original Kirkgate station was opened by the
Manchester and Leeds Railway in
1840, and it remained the only station in central Wakefield until
Wakefield Westgate railway station was opened in
1867. The present building was erected in
1854.
The station currently consists of the main station building and platform and an island platform linked by a subway. Some demolition work took place in
1972, removing buildings on the central platform and a roof which covered the whole station. A wall remains as evidence of these buildings, with an original ironwork canopy.
January 2008 saw the demolition of the former goods warehouse to make way for a new depot for Network Rail, and possibly the start of the redevelopment of the station itself.
Kirkgate station became a Grade II
listed building in
1979.
Since Westgate station has been developed as the main rail station for Wakefield, Kirkgate has been neglected and some parts of the station are now in a poor state of repair. The station is unstaffed and the local consensus is that the current state of the facilities there puts the travelling public off using the station . The station is owned by
Network Rail, with
Northern Rail leasing the facilities they use.
The station in recent times has attracted the attention of the local media. There have been several articles in the
Wakefield Express regarding
paranormal activity at the train station. Apparently the
ghost of a woman in Victorian dress has been seen wandering the subway between platforms 1+2, among many other sightings.
Trains for
Leeds,
Castleford and
Normanton on the
Hallam Line leave on platform 1, as well as trains for
Selby and
Huddersfield. On platform 2, trains depart for Barnsley,
Meadowhall and
Sheffield, and platform 3 is used for services towards
Pontefract Tanshelf, Featherstone and Streethouse.
Services
All services through this station are now operated by
Northern Rail, having previously being operated by
Arriva Trains Northern and
Northern Spirit since the
privatisation of British Rail in
1997.
Hallam Line - There are two trains per hour to
Leeds and to
Sheffield one express and one stopping service.
Huddersfield Line - There is an hourly service from Westgate to
Huddersfield and beyond with no Sunday service.
Pontefract Line - There is an hourly service to
Knottingley railway station via
Pontefract Monkhill with no service on Sundays.
Intercity Plans
In
December 2008 Kirkgate station will see the launch of the new
Northern Rail service for a new
Leeds to
Nottingham service. This route will go via Kirkgate before heading off to
Barnsley and
Sheffield and onto
Chesterfield and Nottingham, with the trains being run on an hourly basis.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Wakefield Kirkgate Railway Station'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://wakefield_kirkgate_railway_station.totallyexplained.com">Wakefield Kirkgate railway station Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
