Ravensthorpe railway station


Ravensthorpe railway station serves the Ravensthorpe suburb of Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the Huddersfield line between Leeds and Manchester, north east of Huddersfield.
The station is managed by Northern, although all services are currently provided by TransPennine Express.
Ravensthorpe station is sited just north-east of Thornhill LNW Junction, where a line branches to Wakefield Kirkgate. There are plans to rebuild the station to the west of the junction, on the route built by the former Manchester and Leeds Railway.

History

Ravensthorpe was a late addition to the London and North Western Railway, with the station and goods shed built in 1890 to attract freight traffic in the area. The line itself had opened some 42 years earlier.
As part of a wider upgrade to the route between Huddersfield and Dewsbury, Network Rail propose to partially grade separate the junction between the two lines and increase capacity for express trains by 4-tracking the route to the west. The new junction design would move the alignment of the Leeds route slightly to the south, meaning the existing station would have to be largely demolished and rebuilt. Network Rail therefore plan to abandon the current station site, and build a replacement approximately to the west, which would turn Ravensthorpe into a junction station, allowing trains to and from Wakefield to call in addition to the existing Leeds services.

Facilities

Ravensthorpe station is unstaffed. The former station buildings, having been damaged by fire, were demolished and replaced with basic shelters. There are no facilities to purchase tickets and so passengers must purchase tickets on the train.
There are timetable posters and a telephone available to obtain train running information, along with digital information screens. Step-free access is limited to the eastbound platform, as the westbound platform can only be reached by steps.
Ravensthorpe is one of West Yorkshire's least used stations due to its relatively remote location, although it does also serve the nearby village of Thornhill.

Services

Ravensthorpe is served each day by an hourly TransPennine Express service running between Leeds and Huddersfield. This replaced the former local Northern-run Leeds to Huddersfield stopping service at the May 2018 timetable change. A limited number of weekday peak Northern services between Leeds and Manchester Victoria via Brighouse also stop here.

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