Mirfield railway station

Mirfield
The view from platform 3
Location
Place	Mirfield
Local authority	Kirklees
Coordinates	53°40′18″N 1°41′36″W / 53.6716°N 1.6933°W / 53.6716; -1.6933Coordinates: 53°40′18″N 1°41′36″W / 53.6716°N 1.6933°W / 53.6716; -1.6933
Grid reference	SE203195
Operations
Station code	MIR
Managed by	Northern Rail
Number of platforms	3
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	0.134 million
2005/06 *	0.149 million
2006/07 *	0.169 million
2007/08 *	0.185 million
2008/09 *	0.260 million
2009/10 *	0.281 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	West Yorkshire (Metro)
Zone	3
History
Opened 1845 (1845)
History
Original company	Manchester and Leeds Railway
Pre-grouping	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Mirfield from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Mirfield railway station serves the town of Mirfield in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the Huddersfield Line operated by Northern Rail and is 4 miles (6 km) north east from Huddersfield.

The platforms have an unusual configuration. Platforms 1 and 2 form an island platform on the western side of the bridge over Station Road/Hopton New Road. Trains from Platform 1 go to Leeds and Wakefield Westgate (eastbound); Platform 2 is rarely used for normal scheduled services but is passed by non-stopping westbound trains to Huddersfield. Platform 3 is a side platform on the eastern side of the bridge; trains are towards Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford Interchange and Brighouse (westbound). The train to Leeds takes around 25 minutes and to reach Huddersfield takes around 10 minutes.

History

The town received its first railway in 1840, when the Manchester and Leeds Railway opened the first section of its cross-Pennine main line between Normanton and Hebden Bridge (completing it through to Manchester on 1 March 1841). It did not actually get a station though until April 1845,^[1] when the company opened one shortly before submitting plans to Parliament to build a branch line from the town along the Spen Valley to Bradford via Cleckheaton. Approval was granted for the route the following year and it was opened as far as Low Moor on 12 July 1848 and through to Bradford two years later. By this time further lines had been opened from nearby Heaton Lodge Junction to Huddersfield by the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway (opened on 3 August 1847) and from Thornhill to Leeds by the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway (opened 18 September 1848).^[2] The LNWR (which had absorbed both the H&M and LD&M by 1849) had originally planned to build its own route through Mirfield, but after negotiations with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (successors to the M&L) agreed to not to go ahead in return for the granting of running powers over the Thornhill to Heaton Lodge section (and also allowing the L&Y access to Huddersfield). This meant that the railway passing through the town soon became extremely congested, carrying as it did the traffic on two main trunk routes between Manchester and Leeds (the Huddersfield & Manchester company having completed its route through Stalybridge in August 1849) and it led to the station gaining a notorious reputation for delays. This persisted even after the Heaton Lodge - Thornhill section was quadrupled in 1884,^[3] and it was not until the LNWR opened an alternative Huddersfield to Leeds route at the turn of the century that the situation began to improve.

Today the station remains busy, despite the loss of the Spen Valley service to Bradford from 14 June 1965^[4] and the links to Normanton and York on 5 January 1970 (the line via Brighouse also closed at the same time, but this reopened in 2000 for peak hour services). It has also lost its buildings to demolition (in the late 1970s) and one of its four tracks but gained the aforementioned third platform as part of a set of capacity improvements in the late 1980s.

Eastbound empties west of Mirfield in 1950

Eastbound empties passing Mirfield Station in 1964

Services

Eastbound from Mirfield, two trains per hour (approximately half-hourly) operate on weekdays and Saturdays towards Leeds, with an hourly service to Wakefield Westgate via Wakefield Kirkgate.

Westbound two trains an hour serve Huddersfield, one continuing to Halifax and Bradford Interchange, with connecting services at Huddersfield to Manchester centre and Manchester Airport. There is also an hourly daytime service to Manchester Victoria via Brighouse and Hebden Bridge - this was introduced as part of the December 2008 timetable alterations on the Caldervale Line. During the weekday morning peak an additional train runs to Leeds.

On Sundays, a two-hourly service operates to Leeds and Huddersfield. There are no Sunday services to Wakefield or Hebden Bridge/Manchester.

Notes

1. ^ Bairstow, p. 13
2. ^ Bairstow, p. 14
3. ^ Bairstow, p. 15
4. ^ Body, p. 124

References

• Bairstow, M. (1983), The Manchester & Leeds Railway (The Calder Valley Line), Wyvern Publishing, Skipton, ISBN 0-90794-106-0
• Body, G. (1988), PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, ISBN 1-85260-072-1

External links

• Train times and station information for Mirfield railway station from National Rail

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Brighouse		Northern Rail Huddersfield Line		Ravensthorpe
Deighton
				Wakefield Kirkgate

[v · d · e]Railways in North Kirklees (Past, present and future)

Legend To Bradford Birstall Town To Leeds Gomersal Howden Clough Lower Birstall Upper Batley To Leeds Carlinghow To Bradford To Leeds Cleckheaton Central Cleckheaton Spen Batley Liversedge Central Liversedge Spen Chickenley Heath Heckmondwike Central Heckmondwike Spen Batley Carr To Wakefield Staincliffe and Batley Carr Dewsbury Central Earlsheaton To Wakefield Dewsbury Wellington Road Ravensthorpe Lower Dewsbury Market Place Northorpe Higher Northorpe North Road To Wakefield Ravensthorpe Dewsbury Midland Goods Battyeford Thornhill Mirfield To Royston and Notton To Huddersfield To Huddersfield