Eaglesclifferailway station serves the town of Eaglescliffe in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees, England. It is located on the Tees Valley Line at the junction with the Northallerton-Eaglescliffe Line and is operated byNorthern. Direct intercity services are provided by Grand Central between London and Sunderland. Station facilities here have been improved. The package for this station included new digital information screens displaying live departures, renewed station signage and the installation of CCTV. The long-line Public Address system has been renewed and upgraded with pre-recorded train announcements.
History
Eaglescliffe Station was the second station to be built along Yarm Road and deviates from the original course of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, that being the world's first steam operated passenger railway service. Originally the line ran on the east side of Yarm Road through Preston Hall. However it is said that Lord Preston was so unhappy at the disruption that trains such as Locomotion No. 1 caused to his cattle he insisted that it be moved to the other side of the road. The railway station that served the parishes of Preston-on-Tees and Egglescliffe was called Preston, however the railway owners displeased at the cost of moving the railway decided to name the new station after Egglescliffe instead of Preston. It was opened on 25 January 1853, some six months after the Leeds Northern Railway had opened their line from Northallerton. This newer route ran alongside the original S&D line, which had its alignment altered to allow easy interchange between the two. Originally it had four platforms, but the western pair were taken out of use in the late 1960s and subsequently removed. The new station became known as Eaglescliffe. There are various stories as to how the station got the name Eaglescliffe instead of Egglescliffe as intended. One such avenue of stories is that the signwriter was sent a telegram to paint the sign 'Eaglescliffe' due to an error and another variant was that the signwriter thought there must have been an error and changed the name himself. In each variation of the story it is said that the sign was not changed for a period of time by which time the station became known as Eaglescliffe and the surrounding area has taken the name. In January 2011, construction work started on a new ticket office at the station.
Facilities
The station has been staffed since 2012 - the ticket office is open six days per week and was run by an independent company in partnership with train operators Northern and Grand Central and Network Rail prior to 2018. A heated waiting room was opened in 2015 to replace the previous waiting shelters - this also has toilet facilities. Train running information is provided by digital CIS displays, automatic announcements and timetable posters. Step-free access to the platform is possible via the ramped footbridge from the car park and station entrance. Because Chester-le-Track ceased trading on 31 March 2018 the booking office was closed. It was re-opened and is now managed by Northern Rail, with staff provided by Grand Central.
Services
Trains run twice-hourly to Middlesbrough and Saltburn eastbound and to Darlington westbound, with alternate services extended to Bishop Auckland. Five daily Grand Central services between and London King's Cross also call. There is an hourly service on Sundays to Darlington/Bishop Auckland and Saltburn, plus two Northern trains to Hartlepool and four Grand Central services.
