Dent railway station

Dent railway station is a Grade II listed[2] station which serves the villages of Cowgill and Dent in Cumbria, England. The station is owned by Network Rail and is operated by Northern who provide all passenger train services. It's situated 51 miles (82 km) northwest of Leeds.

Dent
Location	Dent, South Lakeland England
Coordinates	54.282°N 2.363°W
Grid reference	SD764874
Managed by	Northern
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	DNT
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Original company	Midland Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
6 August 1877	Opened[1]
4 May 1970	Closed[1]
14 July 1986	Reopened[1]
Passengers
2015/16	8,484
2016/17	7,248
2017/18	7,988
2018/19	7,894
2019/20	8,126
Listed Building – Grade II
Feature	The old station at Dent Railway Station
Designated	18 October 1999
Reference no.	1383851[2]
Location
Dent Location in South Lakeland Dent Location in Cumbria
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Location

Dent village is approximately 4.8 miles (8 km) by road to the west, and 400 ft (120 m) below the height of the station, with Cowgill being the nearest small village, located around half a mile away.

Altitude sign, preserved gas lamp and wooden snow fence at rear

At an altitude of 1,150 ft (350 m) and situated between Blea Moor Tunnel and Rise Hill Tunnel immediately to its north, Dent is the highest operational railway station on the National Rail network in England. Dent Station buildings are now privately owned and are available to rent as holiday cottage accommodation.[3] During the 1970s the station was rented out to Barden school in Burnley as an outdoor pursuits centre, providing accommodation for up to 15 pupils whilst they carried out various courses ranging from pot holing, caving, to geology and map reading.

There are stone-built passenger waiting rooms provided on both the northbound and southbound platforms. Access to the southbound platform is, somewhat unusually, by an unguarded barrow crossing at the south end of the station for foot passengers to use with care (a 30 mph permanent speed restriction for non-stop trains through the station is enforced for this reason). Disabled passengers should not use the southbound platform without assistance.[4] Like most stations on the line, there are no ticket machines available as yet (though Northern have stated they plan to provide one here) and so travellers must buy on the train. Train running information can be obtained by telephones on the platforms or from information posters. New digital information screens have also been installed here, though as of November 2019 these have yet to be commissioned.

Old wooden snow fences are still in place on the eastern side of the station (see image).

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

Dent station (right) with passenger crossing (centre) over the main line

Dent railway station is on the historic Settle-Carlisle Line, with services to Leeds and Carlisle. The station was designed by the Midland Railway company architect John Holloway Sanders[5] and opened in 1877 and originally closed in May 1970 but was reopened by British Rail in 1986 following a campaign to maintain regular stopping services along the line.

On weekdays there were formerly five trains in each direction, with six each way on Saturdays and three each way on Sundays.[6] In addition, DalesRail services operate on summer Sundays from Blackpool North and Preston to Carlisle, with one journey in each direction. Northbound trains terminated at either Appleby or Armathwaite until the end of March 2017, as the Armathwaite to Carlisle section was closed whilst the damaged embankment at Eden Brows was repaired. Services through to the terminus at Carlisle resumed on 31 March 2017.

Since the May 2018 timetable change, the service has increased to eight northbound and six southbound calls on weekdays and six each way (including the DalesRail service) on Sundays.[7]

References

1. Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
2. Historic England, "The old station at Dent Railway Station (1383851)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 6 January 2017
3. "Dent Station on the Settle to Carlisle Railway". Retrieved 5 February 2008.
4. Dent station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 28 November 2016
5. "Notes by the Way". Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald. British Newspaper Archive. 1 November 1884. Retrieved 12 July 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
6. GB eNRT, May 2017 Edition, Table 42
7. Northern Rail Timetable 7 - Leeds to Carlisle, Leeds to Morecambe & Heysham Port, 19 May to 14 December 2019Northern website; Retrieved 15 May 2019

External links

• Train times and station information for Dent railway station from National Rail
• "Dent in the 1950s" — Station Master's account of work and life at the station
• Dent Station accommodation website with history and pictures