Batley railway station


Batley railway station serves the town of Batley in West Yorkshire, England. Situated south west of on the main line to Huddersfield and Manchester, the station was opened by the London and North Western Railway in 1848.
The station is now managed by Northern Trains, although all services, except one early morning service from Leeds to Wigan Wallgate via Manchester Victoria, are currently provided by TransPennine Express.

Facilities

Batley railway station is unstaffed, though the main buildings on the eastbound platform 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 stairways.

Services

The service here, which changed substantially in May 2018, was altered again at the December 2018 timetable change after issues with punctuality & service reliability. The net effect has been to essentially restore the pattern that formerly served the station prior to the May 2018 changes, i.e. one Leeds to Huddersfield stopping train per hour each way and one Northern Trains service between Leeds, Manchester Victoria and via Brighouse.
On Sundays, there is an hourly service to Leeds and Huddersfield.

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 and to Tingley and Beeston. The station was significantly enlarged 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 can still be seen.
On June 2018, a protest was held by Batley and Spen MP, Tracy Brabin following weeks of disruption to its services after Northern announced the roll out of a new timetable. The Labour MP argued people who live in the north of the country are fed up of being at the bottom of the pile when it comes to transport investment.

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