Saltburn railway station
Saltburn railway station serves the town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is the terminus of the Tees Valley Line and is operated by Northern Trains who provide all passenger train services.
Saltburn  | |
|---|---|
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| Location | Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Redcar and Cleveland England |
| Coordinates | 54.5835°N 0.9740°W |
| Grid reference | NZ664214 |
| Managed by | Northern Trains |
| Platforms | 2 |
| Other information | |
| Station code | SLB |
| Classification | DfT category F1 |
| Passengers | |
| 2015/16 |  0.250 million |
| 2016/17 | 0.244 million |
| 2017/18 | 0.237 million |
| 2018/19 |  0.241 million |
| 2019/20 | 0.257 million |
| Notes | |
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road | |
It is unmanned, and has two acrylic glass passenger shelters, bench seating and an electronic information board. A self-service ticket machine has also been installed to allow intending passenger to buy tickets prior to travel or collect pre-paid tickets. Step-free access is available from the main entrance to both platforms.[1]
Station facilities here were improved in Summer 2012. The package for this station included new waiting shelters, decorative planting schemes, renewed station signage, a digital information screen displaying live departures, and the installation of CCTV. The long-line Public Address system (PA) has been renewed and upgraded with pre-recorded train announcements.
History
The station was opened by the Stockton and Darlington Railway as the terminus of their line from Redcar on 17 August 1861 (although the ornate station building was not finished until the following year). Eleven years later, the North Eastern Railway opened a line towards Brotton (the Whitby Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway)[2] from the town, but this diverged from the original route some 440 yards (400 m) west of the 1861 station in order to avoid excessively steep gradients further east. This meant the passenger trains from the town to Loftus and Whitby that started in 1875 had to reverse into and out of the terminus before regaining the correct direction at Saltburn West Junction. This line is still in operation today to serve the Skinningrove Steelworks and the Boulby potash mine, although passenger trains ceased in 1958.
In its heyday, the station had four platforms and a sizeable number of carriage sidings to handle the large quantities of excursion trains that ran there - these included services from as far away as Leeds and Blackpool.[3] There was also a short siding extension (approximately 300 yards (270 m)) from the main station to another platform at the rear of the railway-owned Zetland Hotel (opened in 1863) where passengers in first class carriages could disembark directly into their accommodation.
A 1974 remodelling scheme[4] saw the station reduced in size however, with the two main platforms and signal box being taken out of use along with most of the sidings and one of the two running lines from West Junction. Today both of the two surviving excursion bay platforms are used for scheduled services (though most trains use platform 1) but neither the main station building nor the Zetland Hotel is in rail-related use - the former having been converted into a photographic studio, cafe and various other retail outlets and the latter into luxury flats.
Services
There is a half-hourly service (Mondays to Saturdays) from the station to Middlesbrough and Darlington, with one train per hour continuing to Bishop Auckland. Outside of this usual pattern there are also two early morning through services to Carlisle via Durham and Newcastle along with one morning arrival from Hexham which comes via Newcastle and Sunderland. From December 2019, there'll be one additional a.m service running to Nunthorpe via Middlesbrough.
On Sundays the service starts later and there is an hourly service to Middlesbrough, Darlington and Bishop Auckland (but note that the service to Bishop Auckland finishes early in the evening).[5]
Notes
- Saltburn station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 3 February 2017
- Body, p. 146
- Binns, p. 31
- Hunt, J - Article in RAIL Magazine, Issue 610 (January 2009); p.49
- "Electronic National Rail Timetable, Table 44". Network Rail. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
References
- Binns, D. (1981), Railways Around Skipton, Wyvern Publications, Skipton.
- Body, G. (1988), PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, ISBN 1-85260-072-1
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saltburn railway station. |
- Train times and station information for Saltburn railway station from National Rail
- RAILSCOT - Saltburn
| Preceding station | National Rail |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminus | Northern Trains |
| This station offers access to the Cleveland Way | |
|---|---|
| Distance to path | |
| Next station anticlockwise | Kildale 8 miles |
| Next station clockwise | Whitby 19 miles |