Bingley railway station

Bingley railway station is a grade II listed[1] railway station that serves the town of Bingley in West Yorkshire, England, and is 13.5 miles (21.7 km) away from Leeds and 5.5 miles (8.9 km) away from Bradford Forster Square on the Airedale line operated by Northern Trains.

Bingley
Location	Bingley, City of Bradford England
Coordinates	53.8487°N 1.8372°W
Grid reference	SE108391
Managed by	Northern Trains
Transit authority	West Yorkshire (Metro)
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	BIY
Fare zone	3
Classification	DfT category D
Key dates
1847	Original station opened
1892	Present station opened
Passengers
2015/16	1.220 million
2016/17	1.255 million
2017/18	1.245 million
2018/19	1.207 million
2019/20	1.173 million
Listed Building – Grade II
Feature	Bingley Station
Designated	15 April 2019
Reference no.	1460848[1]
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Bingley Station in 1961

History

The Leeds and Bradford Railway opened the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway from Shipley to Keighley on 16 March 1847.[2] Bingley station opened on the first day, and remained the only intermediate station until Saltaire was built in 1856.

The original station was near the Three Rise Locks on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, but the Midland Railway (who had absorbed the L&BR in 1851) closed the old station and opened the current station on 24 July 1892.[3] The second station was designed by Charles Trubshaw, who was a Midland Railway architect.[4] The goods yard and accompanying shed, were located to the north of the station on the down side of the running lines. The shed, which is now in private hands, was taken out of railway use in 1965 and like the station is now grade II listed.[5][6]

Bingley Tunnel (151 yards) and semaphore painted square looking south

The bog north of Bingley station was a headache to the railway builders. It is recorded in the Bradford Observer of 8 March 1847 that "no fewer than 100,000 cubic yards of solid earth and stone have been poured into this insatiable maw of a bog."[7] The bog has also claimed some of Bingley Grammar School's buildings and the sinking may have given rise to an urban legend about a locomotive and wagons having been swallowed up by the bog. No evidence can be found to attest to this.[7]

Immediately south of the station is Bingley Tunnel (151 yards (138 m) long)[8] against which a semaphore signal was placed for movements towards Shipley. When the line was electrified in 1994, the semaphore signalling was replaced with colour lights at the same time.[9] The tunnel mouth at Bingley had a painted white patch on it directly behind the semaphore arm, thereby allowing greater recognition for drivers of the signal's position.[10]

Accidents

A report in the Lancashire Gazette in 1847 states that a freight train from Leeds to Lancaster went through the station at 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) and hit some stationary freight wagons on the main line. Three wagons were completely destroyed whilst a fourth wagon and the locomotive were badly damaged.[7]

In 2013, an unoccupied car ended up on the line just south of Bingley station and was hit at 8:45 pm by a Leeds to Skipton service.[11]

Facilities

The station is staffed part-time (except evenings and Sundays) - the booking office is sited in the main entrance at street level and is linked to the platforms via ramps, footbridge and a lift. Ticket machines are also provided.[12] There are waiting rooms on each platform, with passenger information screens and PA system offering train running information.

Services

Route 7: Bentham Line and Settle & Carlisle Line
Carlisle Armathwaite Lazonby and Kirkoswald Langwathby Appleby Kirkby Stephen Garsdale Dent Ribblehead Horton-in-Ribblesdale Settle Heysham Port Morecambe Bare Lane Lancaster Carnforth Wennington Bentham Clapham Giggleswick Long Preston Hellifield Gargrave Skipton Keighley Bingley Shipley Leeds

During Monday to Saturday daytime, there is a half-hourly service from Bingley to both Leeds and Bradford Forster Square in one direction and four trains an hour going towards Skipton. In the evenings there is a half hourly service to Leeds, an hourly service to Bradford Forster Square and three trains an hour to Skipton.

On Sundays there is an hourly service to Leeds and to Bradford Forster Square, with two trains per hour in the other direction to Skipton. The Bradford to Skipton timetable was increased from its former two-hourly frequency at the December 2017 timetable change.

All trains from Leeds to Carlisle and Lancaster or Morecambe also stop at Bingley.[13]

See also

• Listed buildings in Bingley

References

Railways Through Airedale & Wharfedale. Martin Bairstow (2004) ISBN 1-871944-28-7

1. Historic England. "Bingley Station, including the south-west platform walkway and Park Road entrance  (Grade II) (1460848)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
2. Whitaker, Alan (1986). Bradford Railways Remembered. Clapham: Dalesman Books. p. 13. ISBN 0852068700.
3. Burgess, Neil (2014). The Lost Railways of Yorkshire's West Riding:The Central Section. Catrine: Stenlake. p. 88. ISBN 9781840336573.
4. Leach, Peter; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009). Yorkshire West Riding : Leeds, Bradford and the North (2 ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-300-12665-5.
5. Historic England. "Old railway shed depot, approximately 30 metres south west of new fire station  (Grade II) (1199675)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
6. Biddle, Gordon (2003). Britain's Historic Railway Buildings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 433. ISBN 0-19-866247-5.
7. "Bingley History, The Mystery of the Locomotive in Bingley Bog". Bingley Hub. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
8. Brailsford, Martyn (2016). Railway Track Diagrams; 2 - Eastern (4 ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-9549866-8-1.
9. Marsden, Colin J (April 1992). "Work begins in West Yorkshire, and Class 323 mock-up is unveiled". The Railway Magazine. Vol. 138 no. 1092. London: IPC. pp. 10–11. ISSN 0033-8923.
10. Booth, Chris (September 2017). "Exploring the Airedale". Today's Railways. Sheffield: Platform 5 (189): 47. ISSN 1475-9713.
11. "Probe continues into crash between car and train in Bingley". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
12. Bingley station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 29 November 2016
13. Table 36 & 42 National Rail timetable, May 2019

External links

• Train times and station information for Bingley railway station from National Rail