York railway station is the main-line railway station serving the city of York in North Yorkshire, England. It lies on Britain's East Coast Main Line (ECML) 188.5 miles (303 km) roughly halfway between London, the capital of England, and Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Originally it was part of the North Eastern Railway.
Despite the small size of the city, York is one of the most important railway stations on the British railway network because of its role as a key railway junction approximately halfway between London and Edinburgh. It is few miles north of the point where the Cross Country and Trans-Pennine routes via Leeds leave/join the ECML connecting Scotland and the North East with southern England, the North West and the Midlands. The junction was historically a major site for rolling stock manufacture, maintenance and repair.
The first York railway station was a temporary wooden building on Queen Street outside the walls of the city, opened in 1839 by the York and North Midland Railway. It was succeeded in 1841, inside the walls, by what is now York old railway station. In due course, the irksome requirement that through trains between London and Newcastle needed to reverse out of the old York station to continue their journey necessitated the construction of a new through station outside the walls. This was the present station, designed by the North Eastern Railway architects Thomas Prosser and William Peachey, which opened in 1877. It had 13 platforms and was at that time the largest station in the world. As part of the new station project, the Royal Station Hotel (now The Royal York Hotel), designed by Peachey, opened in 1878.
In 1909 new platforms were added, and in 1938 the current footbridge was built and the station resignalled.
The building was heavily bombed during the Second World War. On one occasion, on 29 April 1942, 800 passengers had to be evacuated from a Kings Cross-Edinburgh train which arrived during a bombing raid. On the same night, two railway workers were killed, one being station foreman William Milner (born 1900), who died after returning to his burning office to collect his first aid kit. He was posthumously awarded the King's commendation for gallantry. A plaque in his memory has been erected at the station. The station was extensively repaired in 1947.
The track layout through and around the station was remodelled again in 1988 as part of the resignalling scheme that was carried out prior to the electrification of the ECML shortly afterwards. This resulted in several bay platforms (mainly on the eastern side) being taken out of service and the track to them removed. At the same time a new signalling centre (York IECC) was commissioned on the western side of the station to control the new layout and also take over the function of several other signal boxes on the main line. The IECC here now supervises the main line from Temple Hirst (near Doncaster) through to Northallerton, along with sections of the various routes branching from it. It has also (since 2001–2) taken over responsibility for the control area of the former power box at Leeds and thus signals trains as far away as Gargrave and Morley.
In 2006–7, to improve facilities for bus, taxi and car users as well as pedestrians and cyclists, the approaches to the station were reorganised. The former motive power depot and goods station now house the National Railway Museum.
All the platforms except 9, 10 and 11 are under the large, curved, glass and iron roof. They are accessed via a long footbridge (which also connects to the National Railway Museum) or via lifts and either of two pedestrian tunnels.
The station was renovated in 2009. Platform 9 has been reconstructed and extensive lighting alterations were put in place. New automated ticket gates (similar to those in Leeds) were planned, but the City of York Council wished to avoid spoiling the historic nature of the station. The then operator National Express East Coast planned to appeal the decision but the plans were scrapped altogether upon handover to East Coast.
The southern side of the station has been given new track and signalling systems. An additional line and new junction was completed in early 2011. This work has helped take away one of the bottlenecks on the East Coast Main Line.
The platforms at York have been renumbered several times, the current use is:
- Platform 1: South-facing bay platform mostly used for services to Hull and for stabling empty stock.
- Platform 2: North-facing bay platform connected only to the Scarborough branch, used mostly for stabling a spare First TransPennine Express unit (along with the accompanying station siding).
- Platform 3: Main southbound platform (but is signalled bi-directionally), accessible directly from the station concourse. Fast and semi-fast southbound East Coast for London King's Cross generally use this platform. Also, CrossCountry services, Grand Central and some westbound First Trans-Pennine Express services also use it.
- Platform 4: Northward continuation of platform 3 connected only to the Scarborough branch, used by First Trans-Pennine Express services from Scarborough.
- Platform 5: (Split into 5a and 5b) Main northbound platform (but is signalled bi-directionally). Fast northbound East Coast services to Scotland use this and generally call at Darlington and Newcastle Central only. Accessible by footbridge or tunnel. Also used by some CrossCountry services northbound. North/eastbound First Trans-Pennine Express to Scarborough generally use this platform along with summer Saturday-only East Midlands Trains services to Scarborough. Southbound East Coast services also stop here both fast and semi-fast, the latter of which generally call at Doncaster, Newark, Peterborough and London King's Cross.
- Platform 6: South-facing bay platform used mostly by Northern Rail commuter services and by terminating East Coast services that return south to London King's Cross, and on non-summer Saturdays by East Midlands Trains services to London St. Pancras.
- Platform 7: South-facing bay platform used mostly by Northern Rail commuter services, East Coast services to/from London King's Cross starting/terminating at York, and non-summer Saturday services by East Midlands Trains to London St. Pancras.
- Platform 8: North-facing bay platform used almost exclusively by Northern Rail trains on the Harrogate Line.
- Platforms 9, 10, 11: Bi-directional platforms used by semi-fast East Coast services heading north to Newcastle and Scotland (but also some fast services), CrossCountry services north and southbound via Leeds, First TransPennine Express services westbound to Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport and northbound to Newcastle Central and Middlesbrough. Some Northern Rail services to Blackpool also use this platform.
Platforms 10 and 11 exist outside the main body of the station. Another siding (the former fruit dock) exists opposite Platform 11.