Wakefield Westgate railway station

History

The first Westgate station opened in 1856 following the opening of the spur line from the city's first station Wakefield Kirkgate. It occupied part of a mansion on the south side built for John Milnes in the mid-18th century. No trace of the station remains as the site was cleared and a school, also demolished, was built on it.

The second station, built by the Great Northern Railway (GNR), Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire, and Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways on the line from Leeds to Doncaster, opened in 1867 on the opposite side of Westgate. The line approached Westgate from Leeds on an embankment and then passed over a bridge on Westgate at the start of a 95-arch viaduct. Designed by J B Fraser, the station had a tower to which a clock with four faces by Potts of Leeds was added in June 1880. The clock tower and some of the station buildings were demolished in the 1960s.

The station was modernised and rebuilt by British Rail in 1967, when direct access to the platform level was achieved by infilling the station forecourt to the former first storey platform level. Opened after the Kirkgate station, Westgate has become the main station in the city due to its location on the main line from Leeds to Doncaster and London. Until the mid 1960s, it had regular services to Bradford Exchange via Batley and Ossett and via Morley Top and to Castleford via the Methley Joint Railway but these services fell victim to the Beeching Axe between 1964 and 1966.

In 2013 the station was rebuilt at the northern end of platform 1 as part of the Merchant Gate redevelopment scheme.

Regeneration

A £1.4 million redevelopment scheme was planned for the station by the end of 2009. The development is part of the Westgate Key Development Area. in which "offices, leisure, small scale retail, hotel, restaurants and a substantial amount of new housing" was built on the site of the old dairy and the disused railway goods yards. Work on the Merchant Gate development - comprising 66 apartments, office space and nine retail/leisure units began in 2009 and was completed in September 2010.

Work began to reconstructing the station at the northern end of the platforms in March 2013 and the new station and footbridge opened on 22 December 2013 and officially opened by Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin on 3 February 2014.

Services

The station is managed by Virgin Trains East Coast, whose services run south from platform 1 to Doncaster and stations to London Kings Cross and north from platform 2 to Leeds. A half-hourly weekday service from Wakefield to London takes approximately just over 2 hours for the 175 miles (282 km) journey.

The station is also served by CrossCountry, Northern and East Midlands Trains. CrossCountry operate train services north to Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow and services to Birmingham New Street, Exeter and the South West of England.

Northern operate services to Leeds, Doncaster and Sheffield on the Wakefield Line and Huddersfield Line services to Huddersfield via Wakefield Kirkgate and Mirfield. During the evenings, there are trains on the Pontefract Line towards Knottingley via Kirkgate and Pontefract Monkhill. This route will run all day and be extended to Leeds after the new Northern franchise starts in 2016. The new franchisee Arriva Rail North is planning to operate its new Northern Connect service between Bradford Interchange and Nottingham via Westgate, Leeds & Sheffield.

East Midlands Trains services from Leeds to London St Pancras International via Derby or Nottingham call at Westgate. They are three early morning departures from Leeds and up to four late afternoon/evening return trips from St Pancras. This is because the maintenance depot for 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 plans for a regular service between St Pancras and Leeds via the Erewash Valley and Leicester but they were rejected by the Strategic Rail Authority.

Facilities

The station is manned and has an information kiosk, ticket office and self-service ticket machines, refreshments and a newsagent. Outside is a taxi rank, a cashpoint and a bus stop. Train running information is via digital display screens, timetable posters and automatic announcements. Lifts and a footbridge connect the platforms, so step-free access is available throughout the station.

Culture

Between 1988 and 2009, a modern sculpture 'A Light Wave' by the Leeds-based artist Charles Quick was located on the wall behind the old bay platform on the northbound side of the station. 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. The sculpture fell into disrepair and was removed. Wakefield Westgate appeared in the TV series A Touch of Frost as Denton Station.