The Manchester and Leeds Railway, authorised in 1836 for a line from Manchester to, was opened in stages; the second section, between Normanton and Hebden Bridge, opened on 5 October 1840. Trains arrived at Hebden Bridge from Normanton and passengers would then continue to by road. The section between Hebden Bridge and Summit Tunnel opened on 31 December 1840, allowing trains to reach ; after Summit Tunnel opened on 1 March 1841, trains continued to Littleborough and Manchester. An 1841 timetable shows five Manchester to Leeds trains per day calling at Hebden Bridge, all but one of which called at all stations; a similar service ran in the opposite direction. Trains began operating to Halifax and Bradford in 1852, and could run through to Leeds via this route from 1854. The current buildings date from 1893, construction having started in 1891. By this point there was a goods yard alongside the station. This closed in 1966 and the site is now the station car park. In 1997 the station was renovated, and signage in the original Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway style was installed.
Facilities
The station has a staffed ticket office, waiting rooms, toilets and a cafe. New lifts have been installed to make both platforms fully accessible, and Information screens were installed in 2012 as part of a programme to provide screens at 18 stations on the Calder Valley Line and elsewhere in West Yorkshire. Previously, passengers had to rely on automated public-address system announcements.
Services
The station is the only station on the Calder Valley Line where every service calls. On Monday to Saturday during daytime there are four trains per hour to Leeds - one via and and the other three via Bradford Interchange. Of the latter, one runs through to. In the late evening, the service drops to half-hourly, all via Bradford. Westbound there are three trains per hour to Manchester Victoria, and an hourly service to via and . One of the Manchester trains is a limited-stop service, calling at Todmorden and Rochdale only, whilst the service via Dewsbury continues to. The other Manchester service now extends through to and. From November 2013 to late March 2014 the line to Burnley was closed for major repair work on Holme Tunnel. A replacement bus service ran, and trains from York terminated/started at Hebden Bridge.
Future improvements
The station will see a variety of improvements to facilities and train services from March 2017 onwards, as part of an investment package for the Calder Valley line as a whole. Track and signalling upgrades have helped reduce journey times in both directions and allow more trains to run to/from Bradford. This has resulted in the closure of the listed signal box here in October 2018, with control passing over to the Rail Operating Centre at. New rolling stock and timetable improvements will follow, with regular through trains to Liverpool Lime Street, and by late 2019. The remaining improvements have since been indefinitely postponed because of capacity problems in central Manchester, though new rolling stock has started to appear on some routes.
