Station code BTL DfT category F1 Number of platforms 2 | Grid reference SE249237 Managed by Northern 2011/12 0.278 million | |
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Similar Dewsbury railway station, Ravensthorpe railway station, Cottingley railway station, Slaithwaite railway station, Deighton railway station | ||
Batley railway station northern rail class 155
Batley railway station serves the town of Batley in West Yorkshire, England. Situated on the London and North Western Railway's main line from Leeds to Huddersfield and Manchester, the station opened in 1848.
Contents
The station is 8 miles (13 km) to the south west of Leeds. Trains from Batley go towards either Leeds northbound or Huddersfield/Hebden Bridge southbound on the Huddersfield Line operated by Northern.
Facilities
The station is unstaffed, though the main buildings on the eastbound platform (1) still stand and are used as a waiting area and entrance; a self-service ticket machine is also located there. There is a shelter on platform 2 and both have digital display screens and timetable posters for train running information provision. Only platform 1 has step-free access, as the subway to platform 2 has stairs.
Services
Mondays to Saturdays in the daytime, there is typically a half-hourly service from Batley to Leeds and to Dewsbury & Mirfield. The latter continues to either Huddersfield or Manchester Victoria via Brighouse and Todmorden. Additional services run during peak times.
Evenings, there is an hourly service northbound to Leeds and southbound to Huddersfield (no service to Manchester). On Sundays, there is a two-hourly service in each direction to the same stations.
History
The station was at one time rather larger than it is today, as it was also served by the Great Northern Railway branch line from Bradford to Wakefield via Dewsbury Central from December 1864 to 7 September 1964, when it fell victim to the Beeching Axe. It was also the junction for branch lines to Birstall (opened in 1852, closed to passengers as a wartime economy measure in 1917 and to all traffic in 1963) and to Tingley and Beeston (opened in 1890, closed in 1951). The station was significantly enlarged (with the addition of three extra platforms) on the opening of the latter route in August 1890, but reverted to the present twin-platform configuration after the closure & abandonment of the Bradford - Wakefield line in 1964/5.
Few traces of any of these routes remain today, but the abutments of the former bridge that took the Bradford line across the line from Leeds near Batley signal box (east of the station) can still be seen.