Trains to Leeds - Station Details and further Information on the Leeds Area
Leeds train station, also known as Leeds City, is the mainline train station serving the city centre of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. The station provides connections to London, Bristol, Plymouth and the South West, Nottingham, Birmingham and the Midlands, Newcastle upon Tyne, Edinburgh and the North East, and Manchester and Liverpool and the North West, as well as to local and regional destinations. It is also the terminus for trains running on the scenic Settle to Carlisle line, as well as the hub of the Metro commuter network. It is located on New Station Street to the south of City Square, at the bottom of Park Row, behind the landmark Queens Hotel.
The station is one of 17 in Great Britain to be managed by Network Rail. It is the busiest English station outside London, and the UK's second busiest station outside London, after Glasgow Central.
The station is situated on a hill falling from the south of the city down to the River Aire and the Leeds canal basin; much of it is supported on a huge number of Victorian brick vaulted arches. These are known to the people of Leeds as The Dark Arches. Situated just off Neville Street under the Dark Arches is Granary Wharf which is a shopping centre consisting of cafes, restaurants, shops and exhibition spaces nestling in the arches directly beneath the train station.
The station itself has 17 platforms, making it the largest in England outside London. There are both through platforms and terminus platforms. Retail facilities within the station include Starbucks, Wetherspoons, Burger King, McDonalds, two branches of WH Smith, Boots, Upper Crust and a Marks & Spencer Simply Food store. A British Transport Police police station is situated on the north concourse, housing officers who police the West Yorkshire train stations.
Leeds station is of note in that it retained manned ticket barriers through the 1990s until 2008. During this time barriers were removed from almost every British Rail station; automatic barriers have now returned to many stations, particularly in London, the South and South Wales. Liverpool Lime Street was another station that retained manned barriers; both stations are characterised by a mix of suburban and long-distance services. Large queues would regularly build up at the barriers, especially during peak hours. Northern Rail, which operates the ticket barriers at Leeds, has installed automatic ticket gates to improve the flow of passengers which have been in use from late September 2008.
The station is served by a number of train operators, including National Express East Coast, CrossCountry, TransPennine Express, Northern Rail and East Midlands Trains. It is also the hub of the MetroTrain network in West Yorkshire. |