Wakefield Westgate railway station
Wakefield Westgate | |
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Wakefield Westgate railway station
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Location | |
Place | Wakefield |
Local authority | City of Wakefield |
Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
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 |
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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 |
Passenger Transport Executive | |
PTE | West Yorkshire (Metro) |
Zone | 3 |
History | |
1867 | Opened |
National Rail – UK railway stations | |
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* 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.
Contents
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.
There is generally a half-hourly 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 Rail 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.
Northern Rail operate services north to Leeds and south to Doncaster and Sheffield as part of the Wakefield Line and services to Selby via Wakefield Kirkgate, Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford Interchange and Leeds. During evenings, there are also trains as part of the Pontefract Line towards Knottingley which go via Wakefield Kirkgate.
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. 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 originally opened in 1867. It had an art nouveau clock tower.[1] It was rebuilt in the 1960s. Opened after the original Kirkgate station, Westgate has become the main station in the city.
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.[2]
2007–2009 regeneration
A new £1.4 million platform was planned for the station by the end of 2009.[3] This will form part of the Westgate Key Development Area[2] 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.[4] However, the sculpture fell into disrepair and was removed.
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References
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wakefield Westgate railway station. |
Preceding station | National Rail | Following station | ||
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CrossCountry | ||||
CrossCountry | ||||
Doncaster | Virgin Trains East Coast East Coast Main Line |
Leeds | ||
East Midlands Trains | ||||
East Midlands Trains | ||||
Terminus | Northern Rail | |||
Northern Rail |
- Use dmy dates from March 2015
- Use British English from March 2015
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with OS grid coordinates
- DfT Category B stations
- Commons category link is defined as the pagename
- Railway stations in Wakefield
- Former Great Central Railway stations
- Former Great Northern Railway stations
- Former Midland Railway stations
- Former West Riding and Grimsby Railway stations
- Railway stations opened in 1867
- Railway stations served by CrossCountry
- Railway stations served by East Midlands Trains
- Railway stations served by Northern Rail
- Railway stations served by Virgin Trains East Coast
- Buildings and structures in Wakefield
- Art Nouveau railway stations