Wakefield Westgate railway station

Wakefield Westgate
Wakefield Westgate railway station
Location
Place	Wakefield
Local authority	City of Wakefield
Coordinates	53°40′55″N 1°30′20″W / 53.6820°N 1.5055°WCoordinates: 53°40′55″N 1°30′20″W / 53.6820°N 1.5055°W
Grid reference	SE327207
Operations
Station code	WKF
Managed by	Virgin Trains East Coast
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	B
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	1.760 million
2005/06	1.847 million
2006/07	1.878 million
2007/08	1.611 million
2008/09	2.269 million
2009/10	1.866 million
2010/11	2.148 million
2011/12	2.288 million
2012/13	2.267 million
2013/14	2.358 million
2014/15	2.485 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	West Yorkshire (Metro)
Zone	3
History
1867	Opened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Wakefield Westgate from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Wakefield Westgate railway station is the mainline railway station for the city of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is located on the western edge of the main city centre, on the opposite side from Wakefield's other station, Kirkgate and is situated on the Leeds branch of the East Coast Main Line and the Wakefield Line.

Services

The station is managed by Virgin Trains East Coast, whose services run south using platform 1 to London Kings Cross and north using platform 2 to Leeds and further north to York, Newcastle and Scotland operated by CrossCountry.^[1]

There is generally a half-hourly weekday service from Wakefield to London which takes approximately just over 2 hours for the 175 miles (282 km) journey. The service is well used by people from the Wakefield district for travel to the capital.

The station is also served by CrossCountry, Northern and East Midlands Trains. CrossCountry operate train services to Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow to the north and services to Birmingham, Exeter and the South West of England. There is an hourly service in each direction.^[2]

Northern operate services north to Leeds and south to Doncaster and Sheffield as part of the Wakefield Line and Huddersfield Line services westwards to Huddersfield via Wakefield Kirkgate & Mirfield.^[3] During evenings, there are also trains as part of the Pontefract Line towards Knottingley which go via Kirkgate & Pontefract Monkhill. This latter route will run all day & be extended through to Leeds in the future as part of the new Northern franchise due to start in April 2016. The new franchisee Arriva Rail North is also planning to serve the station with its new Northern Connect service between Bradford Interchange and Nottingham via Leeds & Sheffield.^[4]

East Midlands Trains services from Leeds to London St Pancras International via either Derby or Nottingham call at Wakefield Westgate. However, there are only up to three departures per day (all early morning) from Leeds and up to four late afternoon/evening return trips from St Pancras.^[5] This is principally because the main maintenance depot for the former Midland Mainline HST power cars is the Maintrain depot at Neville Hill in Leeds. This provides a limited but useful service between West Yorkshire and the East Midlands. The former operator Midland Mainline had serious plans for a regular service between St Pancras and Leeds via the Erewash Valley and Leicester but these were rejected by the (then) Strategic Rail Authority. These services are however useful for people making trips to places such as Bedford and Luton for business or leisure.

Facilities

The station is manned, information kiosk, ticket office, refreshments and a newsagent. Also Vending machines sell snacks and drinks on the station platform. There is a taxi waiting point outside the station, and a cashpoint.

Television appearances

Wakefield Westgate appears in the TV series A Touch of Frost as Denton Station.

History and regeneration

The station entrance

Platform 2 - For northbound trains

The present station opened in 1867, replacing an earlier structure on the site constructed by the Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds Railway in 1856^[6] following the opening of the spur line from Wakefield Kirkgate. They replaced an even earlier station located on the south side of Westgate.^[7] Originally served by both the GNR and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, it had an art nouveau clock tower,^[8] and was two stories. It was modernised & rebuilt by British Rail in 1967, when direct access to the platform level was achieved by infilling the front of station area to rise up to the former first story platform level. Opened after the original Kirkgate station, Westgate has become the main station in the city due to its location on the main line from Leeds to Doncaster & London. Until the mid 1960s, it also had regular services to Bradford (Exchange) via both Batley & Ossett and via Morley (Top) and to Castleford via the Methley Joint Railway. However these all fell victim to the Beeching Axe between 1964 & 1966.

There are plans to regenerate the entire Westgate area of Wakefield, with the station being moved back down the line to allow for longer platforms to enable two trains to use the platforms at once. This means that express trains will be able to pull into the station as local trains terminate or stop, enhancing the passenger capabilities and train numbers the station can manage. Half of the old goods yard is to be purchased for private railway heritage whilst the other half is to see a station hotel, a small number of restaurants and new housing.^[9]

2007–2009 regeneration

A new £1.4 million platform was planned for the station by the end of 2009.^[10] This will form part of the Westgate Key Development Area^[9] which would have put "offices, leisure, small scale retail, hotel, restaurants and a substantial amount of new housing" on the site of the old dairy and the disused railway goods yards.

Work on the Merchant Gate development - a regeneration project comprising 66 apartments, office space and nine retail/leisure units began in 2009 and was completed in September 2010.

New station building (2013)

Part of the above regeneration includes the New Wakefield Westgate station building; work on which began in March 2013. This opened for use on 22 December 2013. The new building was officially opened by Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin on 3 February 2014.

Public art

On Platform 2, between 1988 and 2009, there was a modern sculpture 'A Light Wave' by the Leeds-based artist Charles Quick. The installation comprised a series of wooden planks laid up against a wall, in the form of waves, and illuminated from behind by a succession of lamps.^[11] However, the sculpture fell into disrepair and was removed.

Wakefield Westgate
Legend
To OUTWOOD & LEEDS To WAKEFIELD KIRKGATE To SANDAL & AGGBRIGG, SHEFFIELD & DONCASTER

References

1. GB eNRT 2015-16 Edition, Table 26
2. GB eNRT 2015-16 Edition, Table 51
3. GB eNRT 2015-16 Edition, Tables 31 & 39
4. Northern Franchise Improvements - DfT
5. GB eNRT, Table 53
6. Wakefield Westgate Stations Wakefield Historical Society; Retrieved 22 January 2016
7. 1851 Ordnance Survey Map
8. Wakefield Westgate, West Yorkshire
9. "Westgate Key Development Area". Wakefield Metropolitan District Council.
10. "£2.4 Billion Rail Expansion Programme Unveiled". Network Rail. 3 April 2007. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 3 April 2007.
11. "Bradford Sculpture Trail - Art - lap Light - Little Germany". Retrieved 3 April 2007.

External links

• Photograph of 'A Light Wave' by Charles Quick
• GNR ARDSLEY - LAISTERDYKE (BRADFORD) at Lost Railways West Yorkshire