A very enjoyable afternoon spent at Leeds on the East Coast Mainline where we see plenty of services from London Northeastern Railway, Cross Country, Northern and Transpennine Express.
The railways first came into Leeds in 1834 when the Leeds and Selby Railway opened its line, it later became part of the North Eastern Railway. Its station was located east of the city centre in an area called Marsh Lane, in 1840 the North Midland Railway opened its line to Derby via Rotherham to a terminus station located in Hunslet Lane to the South of the city centre. In 1846 it was extended to a more central location known as Wellington Street, also known as Wellington Station.
A third station was built in 1854 known as Leeds Central and was opened by the Manchester and Leeds Railway and the London and Northwestern Railway. It was the biggest of the three and was jointly shared by the LNWR and the North Eastern Railway. However other companies had rights to access the station including Great Northern Railway and Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.
And then in 1869 another station was constructed known as New Station, this was done as a joint operation by the LNWR and North Eastern Railway which connected the former Leeds and Selby railway to the LNWR lines located to the west of the city, this was done via a mile long connection between the lines utilizing viaducts and bridges.
In 1938 once nationalisation occured New Station and Wellington were combine to form Leeds City Station.
During the blitz the Luftwaffe made a heavy bombing campaign against Leeds and the central station was heavily hit over the course of a few days resulting the heavy loss of life and the station needing rebuilding.
In 1967 there was some work done to the area surrounding the various stations, trains using the Central Railway station were diverted into Leeds City Station which then became the main station in Leeds. Central Railway station was eventually closed and subsequently demolished which also meant that some of the many viaducts around the city were eventually disused which can now be seen around the city as they couldn't be taken down which is a massive shame but also highlights how vast the railway network was at that time. During the rebuilding Leeds City Station was taking in roughly 500 trains every day and on average seeing 2.75 million passengers.
When the 1990's made an appearance the station capacity was at bursting point, between 1999 and 2002 Leeds was once again the scene of redevelopment, the work included construction of additional tracks at the western end of the approach to the station, improving the efficiency of trains coming and going from the station which would mean that they wouldn't have to cross one another's path when entering and leaving the station. The station was extended from 12 to 17 platforms which included opening up the former parcels platform for passenger traffic.
In 2008 automatic ticket barriers were installed which allowed for station staff to be allocated to other areas of the station.
My next film will be from Rugby.
You can find me on Facebook through the group Tornado922, there you will find regular updates, videos and photos from all of my goings on throughout 2023.
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