Bishop Auckland railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Bishop Auckland
code = BIA


manager = Northern Rail
locale = Bishop Auckland
borough = Wear Valley
start =
platforms = 1
lowusage0405 = 66,681
lowusage0506 = 74,092
lowusage0607 = 85,063

Bishop Auckland railway station serves the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England. The station is the terminus of the Tees Valley Line 19 km (12 miles) north of Darlington.

The station is operated by Northern Rail who provide all passenger train services. The railway continues (although no longer connected to Network Rail metals) beyond Bishop Auckland as the Weardale Railway, freight traffic having ceased in 1993.

History

Bishop Auckland gained it's first rail link in 1842 [Body, p.43] , when the Stockton and Darlington Railway built a line into the town from neighbouring Shildon, initially to a temporary terminus at "South Church". A permanent station on the current site followed within months, along with an extension further into Weardale as far as Crook in 1844 to serve various coal mines and quarries in the area (which was subsequently extended to Blackhill). A branch from this line at Witton-le-Wear to Frosterley opened in 1847, was extended to Stanhope in 1862 and again through to Wearhead in 1895. The construction of a branch line from Durham to the town in April 1857 by the North Eastern Railway saw the original station replaced by a joint NER/S&D structure on the current site (later that year) but it soon became inadequate for the traffic passing through it, especially after the opening of the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway to Barnard Castle (and onwards to Tebay) in 1862. This led to the NER rebuilding it in December 1867 and again (in triangular form) in 1905.In common with much of the UK, the area saw a decline in passenger and freight usage after World War II, with the Wearhead branch the first to lose it's passenger trains in 1953. The principle losses came in the sixties however, with services to Barnard Castle via West Auckland ending in 1962, those to Durham in 1964 [ [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/b/bishop_auckland/index.shtml Subterranea Britannica - Bishop Auckland] ] and to Crook in 1965 leaving only the Darlington line in operation (along with the freight-only branch to Eastgate). The station remained more or less intact (although increasingly forlorn and run down) for more than twenty years thereafter, until it was replaced by the current structure in June 1986. This is situated on the site of the former Crook branch platform - the remainder of the old station site having been redeveloped (it is now occupied by a supermarket and retail park).

ervices

There is generally a two-hourly service southbound to Darlington, Middlesbrough and Saltburn. It is hourly during peak periods.

Notes

References

*Body, G. (1988), "PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2", Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough, ISBN 1-85260-072-1

External links

* [http://217.23.229.206/jpclient.exe?b=Bishop+Auckland+(rail+station)&SubmitQuery Buses from the station]
* [http://217.23.229.206/jpclient.exe?e=Bishop+Auckland+(rail+station)&SubmitQuery Buses to the station]