The station was opened by the Midland Railway, for passengers only, as Dore and Totley on 1 February 1872 on the then two-year-old Midland Main Line extension from Chesterfield to Sheffield, and was initially served by the local services on this line. The station was then served by six or seven weekday trains and three on Sundays. In 1894 the station became the junction for the new Dore and Chinley line. Dore & Totley Station Junction was at the south end of the station and the signal box stood in the angle between the Chesterfield and Chinley lines. Between 1901 and 1902, the line between Sheffield station and Dore was widened; the original twin tracks continued to be used by traffic for the Dore and Chinley line and two new tracks were built to the east of this for traffic on the main line to Chesterfield. The original southbound platform was converted to an island platform and a new platform for trains to Chesterfield built to the east. The line from Chesterfield was slewed into its present course to serve the new platforms. A new Dore and Totley Station Junction was made to the north of the station. On 9 October 1907, a Sheffield to Birmingham and Bristolexpress train ran foul of the points at the station. One of the locomotives hit the platform and overturned. The driver and the second man were thrown from the cab but survived, and the passenger coaches fortunately stayed upright with no passengers injured. Dore and Totley became south Sheffield's only remaining station after the Beeching cuts in the 1960s saw Beauchief, Millhouses and Heeley stations all close. The station was closed to main line traffic and became an unstaffed halt in 1969. It was renamed Dore on 18 March 1971. Subsequently, the island and eastern platforms were demolished in the mid-1980s. Mainline services from the South therefore can no longer stop at the station and the Hope Valley Line now runs single-track through the station, with trains in both directions stopping at the one remaining platform. The photograph is taken from the north and shows the remaining platform on the Hope Valley line and none on the main line. The single-track section through the station has become a significant bottleneck, as noted in Network Rail's Yorkshire and Humber Route Utilisation Strategy of 2009. The strategy included proposals to address the problem by re-doubling the track and building a second platform. South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive has also been lobbying for this problem to be addressed. The station site had previously been occupied by the Walk Mill; a water-powered mill in operation from the 1280s onwards was used by the monks of Beauchief Abbey to cleanse and thicken cloth. The name Dore and Totley was restored in April 2008 when the station received new Northern Rail branded running in boards. Plans to double the size of the station by 2014 have been delayed. An additional platform and new Disability Discrimination Act 1995-compliant footbridge are to be provided. Construction work began in December 2012 on a new 129-space car-park, which was completed in April 2013. Network Rail's Hope Valley Capacity Scheme includes plans to restore the second platform at Dore & Totley. Plans include a new bridge with passenger lifts and a shelter on the single sided island platform for Manchester bound trains. This plan is spun out of the original Manchester Hub scheme, now renamed the Northern Hub, incorporating two freight passing loops to be constructed east of Bamford and at Dore South. Once completed an hourly stopping service is hoped to be provided, and platforms should be long enough to accommodate 6 car trains, now running on TPE fast services. The Secretary of State at the Department for Transport approved the Capacity Scheme in February 2018 and Network Rail have indicated an intended start date late in 2020. That might allow completion by 2022, but trains are not expected to be able to operate any major new services before December timetable changes, and possibly later. In May 2019, a canopy was added to the old 1872 station building.
Facilities
The station is unstaffed, but has a self-service ticket machine available. The old station buildings are now in private commercial use as a restaurant. A small brick waiting shelter is provided at the northern end of the platform, along with passenger information displays, automatic announcements and timetable poster boards to offer train running information. Step-free access is available from the adjacent car park to the platform.
Services
The station has an hourly Northern Trains stopping service in each direction on the Hope Valley line between Sheffield and Manchester Piccadilly, augmented by a number of peak-hour stops by faster trains on the South Trans-Pennine and Liverpool–Norwich routes. During the rest of the day those hourly TransPennine Express services and East Midlands Railway non-stopping trains pass through.
