Riding Mill railway station

Riding Mill railway station is a railway station which serves the village of Riding Mill in Northumberland, England. It is located on the Tyne Valley Line, which runs from Newcastle upon Tyne to Carlisle, 15 miles 35 chains (24.8 km) from Newcastle Central.[1]

Riding Mill
Location
Place	Riding Mill
Local authority	Northumberland
Grid reference	NZ019615
Operations
Station code	RDM
Managed by	Northern
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	33,012
2015/16	27,986
2016/17	28,376
2017/18	25,434
2018/19	26,688
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Riding Mill from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

The station is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern, which provides all passenger train services. The Newcastle to Carlisle railway runs through the village and its station, which was opened in 1835 and is one of the oldest railway stations in the world.

Facilities

The station has been unstaffed since 1967 and has no ticket machine (though Northern does plan to install one), so all tickets must be purchased prior to travel or on board the train. There are basic shelters provided on each platform, along with timetable poster boards and a telephone on platform 2 to offer train running information. The main buildings still survive here and are in private residential use. The platforms are linked by a pre-grouping metal footbridge similar to ones seen elsewhere on the line (e.g. at Wetheral and Haltwhistle) - this is the only means of accessing the westbound platform from the station entrance. As such, step-free access is only possible on the eastbound side.[2]

Services

Northern Trains Route 4: Tyne Valley Line
West Coast Main Line to Edinburgh & Glasgow Glasgow South Western Line to Glasgow Carlisle Cumbrian Coast Line to Barrow-in-Furness & West Coast Main Line to London Euston Settle to Carlisle Line Wetheral Brampton Haltwhistle Bardon Mill Haydon Bridge Hexham Corbridge Riding Mill Stocksfield Prudhoe Wylam Blaydon MetroCentre Dunston East Coast Main Line to London King's Cross Newcastle East Coast Main Line to Edinburgh Durham Coast Line to Middlesbrough

The station has an hourly service to both Newcastle and Hexham on weekdays and Saturdays, with some evening trains continuing on to Carlisle. Many daytime eastbound trains continue to Sunderland and Middlesbrough. There is also an hourly service each way on Sundays, with all trains running through to Carlisle.[3]

A landslip west of the station (caused by heavy rain and a broken drainage pipe) in early January 2016 led to the temporary suspension of services whilst repairs to the track and adjacent cutting were carried out. A replacement bus service ran between Hexham and Prudhoe until the work was completed.[4] The line reopened on 8 February 2016, following the removal of over 35 000 tonnes of earth from the site.[5]

Notes

1. Padgett, David (October 2016) [1988]. Brailsford, Martyn (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 2: Eastern (4th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. map 43C. ISBN 978-0-9549866-8-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
2. Riding Mill station facilitiesNational Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 2 February 2016
3. Table 48 National Rail timetable, May 2016
4. Railway between Hexham and Prudhoe will be closed for weeks after Corbridge landslip Riddell, Kathryn Newcastle Chronicle article 8 January 2016
5. "West line between Carlisle and Newcastle to reopen on Monday after landslip repairs"Network Rail Media Centre; Retrieved 4 February 2016

External links

• Train times and station information for Riding Mill railway station from National Rail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Stocksfield		Northern Tyne Valley Line		Corbridge