Halifax railway station (England)

Halifax railway station serves the town of Halifax in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the Caldervale Line and is 17 miles (27 km) west from Leeds.

Halifax
Train at Platform 1 at Halifax railway station
Location
PlaceHalifax
Local authorityCalderdale
Coordinates53.720650°N 1.853790°W / 53.720650; -1.853790
Grid referenceSE097249
Operations
Station codeHFX
Managed byNorthern
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryC2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 1.936 million
2015/16 1.982 million
2016/17 1.993 million
2017/18 1.949 million
2018/19 1.843 million
– Interchange 69,474
Passenger Transport Executive
PTEWest Yorkshire (Metro)
Zone4
History
Original companyManchester and Leeds Railway
Pre-groupingLancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Post-groupingLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway
1 July 1844First station opened as Halifax Shaw Syke
7 August 1850Resited and named Halifax
23 June 1855Permanent buildings opened
1885–86Rebuilt and enlarged
June 1890Renamed Halifax Old
30 September 1951Renamed Halifax Town
12 June 1961Renamed Halifax
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Halifax from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Platform 2 heads eastbound, towards Bradford and Leeds, while platform 1 heads westbound towards Brighouse, Huddersfield, Sowerby Bridge, Blackpool North and Manchester Victoria. The two routes divide about a mile south of the station at Dryclough Junction.

To the east, the line also divided with the current line passing into Beacon Hill tunnel and a disused line via Halifax North Bridge to Ovenden, then going on to a junction at Holmfield with the Halifax High level line which had stations in Pellon and at St Paul's, Queens Road; and via Queensbury to Bradford and Keighley, for destinations in the North-West.

Description
Leeds Bound Platform

The station has a car park, bicycle parking and a pick up point, like many other stations. There is also a staffed ticket booth with option of paying for a ticket using a ticket machine. A lift to the platform is available for wheelchair users, but there are currently no lower counters for easier access to buy tickets.[1]

Entry to the station is via a cobbled road bridge from opposite the bottom of Horton Street.

A campaign, run by the local newspaper the Halifax Evening Courier, was started to get the station refurbished. The paper said that it wanted a station fit "for the 21st century" and that its current state was "disgraceful".[2] Due to the amount of support generated, Network Rail and Northern agreed to do so.[3]

Work began in May 2009 on a £2.5 million refurbishment scheme that has seen the station footbridge and canopies repaired, new glazing and lighting installed and repainting of the structures.[4] The second phase of the refurbishment, covering the platform and the concourse, was completed in November 2010.[5]

In October 2014, plans were submitted to bring an old platform back into use to create three platforms together with signalling improvements.[6] Network Rail subsequently announced plans to upgrade the eastern portion of the Calder Valley line in 2017, which will see the surviving signal box here closed. Control of the upgraded track layout and new signalling was passed to the York Rail Operating Centre in October 2018.[7][8]

History
The Victorian and adjoining modern stations
A Brush Class 31 awaits departure with the 0835 train to London at Halifax in 1973, at the current Leeds-bound platform. The platforms to the left no longer remain and are occupied by Eureka!.

The original station was built at Shaw Syke, approximately 220 yards (200 m) west of the current location[9] and opened on 1 July 1844 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway as the terminus of a branch off their main line from Manchester to Normanton.[10][11] With the opening of the line between Halifax and Bradford on 7 August 1850, a new station was opened on the current site; this had temporary wooden buildings.[11][12] The station at Shaw Syke was then extended and used as a goods depot[13] The permanent buildings at the current site were designed by Thomas Butterworth[14] and opened on 23 June 1855.[15] This Grade II listed building now houses the nursery associated with the Eureka! Children's Museum.

Railway clearing house map showing lines north of Halifax in 1913

A new line was constructed by the Great Northern Railway in the mid-1870s from the main station over a long viaduct to a station at North Bridge, then across and indeed partly in tunnel beneath the hilly terrain north of the town to an unusual triangular station at Queensbury, where the line divided into track for Keighley (and Skipton, Carlisle and Morecambe) to the north-west and Bradford in the east.

Halifax station was redesigned during 1884–85 and completely rebuilt during 1885–86. Part of the new station opened on 25 October 1885 and the remainder on 30 May 1886. The new station had separate accommodation for LYR and GNR trains; the latter being on the west side.[16]

The Halifax High Level Railway was a related branch line opened in 1890, leading from Holmfield near Ovenden, on the line to Queensbury, through a half-mile tunnel through the ridge and across the Wheatley Valley on a ten arch viaduct past Samuel Webster's brewery, to Pellon, where there were sizeable goods facilities and then to St Paul's railway station in Queens Road. This branch line gradually fell into disuse, losing its regular passenger service as early as 1917. The last goods train ran in 1960 and the line was then dismantled, leaving the viaduct standing as a reminder of the former freight link.

The Queensbury branch as a whole was closed in stages from 1955 onwards, although many of its engineering features remain. The route has lately been adopted and to an extent brought back into public use and attention by Sustrans as a walking and cycle route. The principal structure on the line, Queensbury Tunnel, was, at its opening, the longest on the GNR system at 2,501 yards (2.287 km). It is currently derelict, partially flooded and impassible, although a campaign is (2017) underway to save it for inclusion in the Sustrans route.

To distinguish it from Halifax St. Paul's and Halifax North Bridge stations, the main station was known from June 1890 as Halifax Old Station. On 30 September 1951, the name was changed again to Halifax Town and, on 12 June 1961, it reverted to Halifax.[11]

Services

Eastbound: Monday to Saturdays there are now five departures per hour to Bradford, of which four continue to Leeds (the ex-Huddersfield service terminates at Bradford). Two of the latter continue beyond Leeds - one to York and the other to Hull (the latter starts here and was introduced at the winter 2019 timetable change). Fewer trains run in the evening.

Westbound: Monday to Saturday daytimes there is a half-hourly service to Manchester Victoria (hourly evenings), one train an hour to Blackpool North and one per hour to Huddersfield via Brighouse. One of the two Manchester trains is limited stop (calling only at Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Rochdale), whilst the other calls at all intermediate stations to Todmorden, then fast to Rochdale & Manchester.[17] The latter now runs through to Chester via Warrington Bank Quay. One service per hour from the Leeds direction terminates here.

On Sundays there is an hourly service to each of Manchester Victoria, Blackpool North and to Huddersfield.

New Northern Rail franchisee Arriva Rail North planned to introduce additional services to Leeds & Manchester in 2019, many of which would run through to either Liverpool Lime Street or Chester.[18][19] Through services to Manchester Airport were promised once the Ordsall Chord was completed, but capacity issues in the Castlefield Junction area have seen these postponed for the foreseeable future. The Chester service began running at the May 2019 timetable change. Further alterations at the December 2019 change will see the Huddersfield service start/terminate at Bradford, but a new service to Hull via Selby introduced to maintain the frequency for through trains to Leeds and restore through service to stations east of there.

London services

The station now sees regular services to London King's Cross via Wakefield Kirkgate, Pontefract and Doncaster. In January 2009, Grand Central had their application for train paths to run a Bradford Interchange to London service accepted by the Office of Rail Regulation.[20] Three trains per day initially operated once full approval for the service was granted [21] - these use Class 180 units and started running from 23 May 2010.[22] A fourth service to and from London commenced in December 2013 [23]

gollark: Just goes to show, stare at the AP constantly or die.
gollark: Madman.
gollark: Just sitting there, mocking us.
gollark: It's been here for 30 seconds, somehow.
gollark: Zyu in volcano.

See also

References
  1. Station facilities at Halifax
  2. Featherstone, Megan (1 March 2007). "Give Halifax a proper station". Halifax Evening Courier. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
  3. Featherstone, Megan (19 March 2007). "Action pledge on our station". Halifax Evening Courier. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
  4. "£2.5 million Investment at Halifax Station" (Press release). Network Rail. 11 May 2009. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
  5. Halifax Rail Station refurbishment (Second phase of work)
  6. "Ambitions for multi-million pound revamp of Halifax railway station". Halifax Courier. 17 October 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  7. "Track and signalling works target journey time and capacity" Halifax and District Rail Action Group; Retrieved 11 August 2017
  8. "West Yorkshire signalling upgrade". networkrail.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  9. Heritage Locations - Halifax Station www.transportheritage.com; Retrieved 2 December 2013
  10. Marshall, John (1969). The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, volume 1. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 60. ISBN 0-7153-4352-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  11. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 112. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  12. Marshall 1969, pp. 251,253
  13. Our Early Railways - Halifax Town Online Washington, Geoffrey (1 April 2008), www.halifaxtown.co.uk; Retrieved 2 December 2013
  14. Railway Station, Halifax; From Weaver to Web www.calderdale.gov.uk; Retrieved 2 December 2013
  15. Marshall 1969, p. 253
  16. Marshall, John (1970). The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, volume 2. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 120. ISBN 0-7153-4906-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  17. Table 41 National Rail timetable, December 2019
  18. Northern Franchise Improvements - DfT
  19. New trains pledged as Government changes Yorkshire’s main local rail operatorThe Star news article 9 December 2015; Retrieved 17 December 2015
  20. ORR Track Access Applications Decision for ECML Passenger Services - 28 January 2009 Archived 24 March 2009 at the UK Government Web Archive ORR Website; Retrieved 29 January 2009
  21. Grand Central Rail - Future Developments www.grandcentralrail.co.uk; Retrieved 21 August 2009
  22. RAIL issue 641
  23. Grand Central On Track To Deliver Extra Service in YorkshireGrand Central press release; Retrieved 14 October 2013
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Sowerby Bridge   Northern
Calder Valley Line		   Low Moor
Brighouse    
Brighouse   Grand Central
London-Bradford		   Low Moor
Disused railways
Copley   Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway   North Bridge
Greetland     Hipperholme
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