Leeds City station
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Leeds City station is the mainline railway station serving the city of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. The station provides connections to London, Southampton and the south, Bristol and the West Country, Newcastle, Edinburgh and the north, and Manchester and Liverpool and the west, as well as to local and regional destinations. It is also the terminus for trains running on the scenic Settle to Carlisle line. It is located to the south of City Square, at the bottom of Park Row, behind the landmark Queens Hotel.
The station is situated on a hill falling from the south of the city down to the Leeds canal basin; much of it is supported on brick vaulted arches, the space provided by which is used for car parking and some business premises. It was extensively refurbished in circa 2002, with the construction of a new footbridge to replace an underpass; the addition of a new platform at the south side, the reopening of platforms at the north side, lengthening of existing platforms, and the relaying of the majority of track, points and signals serving the station approaches. The new track layout improves efficiency by separating trains travelling to different destinations, preventing them from having to cross each other's routes. Ancillary improvements include a new multi-story car park and station entrance, and some improvement to the retail facilities within the station arcade. Outlets include Wetherspoons, Burger King, McDonalds, 2 branches of WH Smith, Boots, Upper Crust and a Marks & Spencer simply food store.
The station was rebuilt in 1938, when two stations (New and Wellington) were combined to form a former Leeds City station: the third station, Central, was unaffected by the change. Part of Wellington Street station, to the north of the site, became the parcels depot. During the recent rebuilding, it became part of the main station. Unlike the rest of the station, which has been extensively modernised, the existing canopies were preserved. The work in 1938 provided the North Concourse, and the Queens Hotel. In 1967 a further remodelling of the site took place, when all traffic using Central station was diverted into the City station, and Central station closed: it has now been demolished. A huge amount of engineering work was involved, including the replacement of 100 year-old bridges over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. See article Railway stations in Leeds for further details.
The 2002 work involved the work shown above: unlike the rest of the station, which has been extensively modernised, the existing canopies were preserved.
Leeds City station is of note in that it retained manned ticket barriers during the 1990s. During this time barriers were removed from almost every British Rail station; automatic barriers have now returned to many stations, particularly in London and the South-East.
External links
- Station information (http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Stations/stations/Leeds/Default.aspx) on Leeds City station from Network Rail
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