Hellifield railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Hellifield
code = HLD


manager = Northern Rail
locale = Hellifield
borough = Craven
start = 1880
platforms = 2
lowusage0405 = 16,712
lowusage0506 = 18,462
lowusage0607 = 20,057

Hellifield railway station serves the village of Hellifield in North Yorkshire, England.

The station is 58 km (36¼ miles) north west of Leeds on the Leeds to Morecambe Line towards Carlisle and Morecambe. The Ribble Valley Line from Blackburn also meets the Leeds to Morecambe Line at Hellifield which is managed by Northern Rail, who provide all passenger train services.

History

The first Hellifield station was opened by the "Little" North Western Railway in 1849. It was a modest structure, similar to those at Gargrave and Long Preston and sited some 400m to the south of the present one [Binns, 1982 p.33] . Its much larger replacement (the current station) was built by the Midland Railway and opened on 1 June 1880 [Binns, 1981 p.3] , immediately to the north of the junction of the line from Leeds and the newly completed Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway route from Blackburn via Clitheroe. It soon became was a busy junction (as it was now located on the Midland Railway's main line from London to Scotland), with trains going to:

*Clitheroe
*Skipton
*Leeds
*Blackburn
*Settle
*Carlisle
*Manchester
*Morecambe

The line from Blackburn had its passenger service withdrawn on 10 September 1962, but remains open for freight and periodic diversions when the West Coast main line is closed north of Preston for engineering work.

ervice

There is a service each day from Hellifield towards Leeds southbound (twelve trains per day, although certain trains require a change at Skipton) and Carlisle and Morecambe northbound. The interval between services southbound ranges from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Northbound the service is usually every two hours to Carlisle (five per day on weekdays, six on Saturdays) and Morecambe (five) respectively (with longer gaps in the afternoon). The last train of the day from Leeds only runs as far as Ribblehead.

On Sundays there is an infrequent service in both directions - three trains to Carlisle, two or four to Morecambe and five or seven to Leeds, depending on the time of year.

Also on Sundays in the summer, one or two trains operate from Preston along to the Ribble Valley Line via Clitheroe to Hellifield and onwards towards Carlisle. There are plans for more services from Clitheroe. The Ribble Valley Rail group is campaigning for this route to be re-opened.

Image Gallery

Notes

References

*Binns, D. (1981), "Railways Around Skipton", Wyvern Publications, Skipton.
*Binns, D. (1982), "The Little North Western Railway", Wyvern Publications, Skipton. ISBN 0 907941 01 X

External links

rail line two to one
previous1=Gargrave
route1=Northern Rail
Settle-Carlisle Line
previous2=Clitheroe
route2=Northern Rail
Ribble Valley Line
Sunday Only
next=Long Preston
col=8b00ffrail line
next=stnlnk|Long Preston
previous=stnlnk|Bell Busk
route=Midland Railway
"Little" North Western Railway
col=964B00