Big Four

Season 8, Episode 104 - Trains at Leeds station

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• published: 27 Mar 2017
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The second station of the day takes us right into the beating heart of Yorkshire for a stint during rush hour as we take on a rail enthusiast's greatest challenge at Leeds The railways arrived in Leeds in 1834 when the Leeds and Selby Railway opened its line. It had a terminus at Marsh Lane east of the city centre. In 1840, the North Midland Railway constructed its line from Derby via Rotherham to a terminus at Hunslet Lane to the south. It was extended to a more centrally-located terminus at Wellington Street in 1846, known as Wellington Station. Another railway station, Leeds Central, was opened in 1854 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway and the London and North Western Railway, or LNWR. The railway station became owned jointly by the LNWR and the North Eastern Railway, but other companies had powers to run trains there, including the Great Northern Railway and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. In 1869 New Station opened as a joint enterprise by the LNWR and the North Eastern Railway. It connected the former Leeds and Selby Railway Line to the east with the LNWR lines to the west. A mile-long connection was built, carried entirely on viaducts and bridges. New Station was built partially on a bridge over the River Aire adjacent to Wellington railway station. The map to the right shows the variety of different railway lines in Leeds in 1913. Following the 1921 Railways Act, when railways in Great Britain were grouped into four companies, New Station was jointly-operated by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway. The first rationalisation occurred in 1938, when two railway stations were combined to form Leeds City Station, opening on 2nd May that year. This was designed by LMS architect William Henry Hamlyn. The third railway station, Leeds Central, was unaffected by the change. Part of Wellington railway station later became a parcels depot. The north concourse and the Queens Hotel were built at this time. In 1962 British Railways House, now City House, was added to the railway station. It was designed by architect John Poulson providing British Railways with administrative buildings. The building became dated and hard to let before refurbishment in 2009. The building was lambasted in 1967 by poet John Betjeman who said it blocked all the light out of City Square, and was a testament to money with no architectural merit. In 2010 the building was bought by property company Bruntwood which is redeveloping it to provide serviced offices, with a new look to the façade. In 1967 further remodelling of the site took place and trains using Central Railway Station were diverted into the City Railway Station which became the main railway station serving the city. Central Railway Station was closed and has been demolished. The viaduct leading to Central Railway Station is one of many disused viaducts near Leeds Railway Station. Engineering work included replacing 100-year-old bridges over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, the construction of the south concourse & an overall roof, along with major platform and track layout alterations and the commissioning of a new power signal box to control the railway station area. At the time of this rebuilding, the railway station was served by five hundred trains on a typical day, with two and three-quarter million passenger journeys a year. Wellington became entirely devoted to parcels traffic at this time with the track layout extensively changed. The remaining Midland line trains which previously used City North station were diverted into the City South station, the former LNWR/NER New station, and called simply Leeds from this time. Nowadays, in this video, we see a variety of Northern Rail, Cross Country, Transpennine Express and Virgin Trains East Coast stock heading for a variety of destinations including York, Manchester Airport, Edinburgh Waverley, London Kings Cross and Doncaster Please rate, comment and subscribe and thanks for watching!