York to Beverley Line

The York to Beverley Line formed part of a railway which ran directly between the English cities of York and Hull. It crossed the largely flat terrain of the Yorkshire Wolds and serviced the towns of Stamford Bridge, Pocklington, Market Weighton and Beverley.

Construction

The project for a railway between York and Hull via Beverley was instigated by the York and North Midland Railway (Y&NMR) and its chairman George Hudson. Hudson, keen to maintain the Y&NMR's territorial monopoly in East Yorkshire, had bought the Londesborough Hall estates near Market Weighton in 1845. This move saw off his rival, the Manchester & Leeds Railway who were threatening to build their own line to Hull through that area. Opposition to the scheme from the local canal owners was silenced after the Y&NMR bought them out at inflated prices.

Parliamentary approval for the new line was granted in 1846. The section of track between York and Market Weighton was built quickly due to the relatively easy terrain and opened on October 3, 1847.

The second part of the track from Market Weighton through the Wolds to Beverley was not completed for a further 17 years due to complications arising from Hudson's spectacular downfall amid financial scandal involving one of his other railway companies, the Eastern Counties Railway. After Hudson's resignation in 1849 the Y&NMR suspended all its planned and ongoing projects, opting to consolidate rather than expand any further. The Y&NMR became part of the North Eastern Railway (NER) in 1854.

Before the extension to Beverley could resume the NER had to resolve an ongoing dispute with the local MP, Lord Hotham who owned much of the land to the east of Market Weighton. He eventually agreed to allow the railway on his land providing he got his own station (at Kiplingcotes) and that no trains ran on Sundays. The line was finally completed by the NER and the first through-train from Hull to York ran on May 1, 1865.

The completed route left the Y&NMR's York to Scarborough Line at Bootham Junction north of York and at the other end joined its Hull to Bridlington route north of Beverley. Market Weighton subsequently became the location of the junction between the York to Beverley Line and the Selby to Driffield Line which led to the Yorkshire coast. The entire route had been double-tracked by 1889 and the level-crossing on the York to Scarborough main road was replaced by a bridge in the 1930s.

Modernisation plan

Despite the closure of several under-performing stations in the 1950s the future of the line seemed assured by the start of the following decade. Nine trains ran in each direction each day with healthy passenger usage and the line was reportedly over £5,000 in profit. The first steps towards modernisation of the line had been taken as early as 1953 when the first automatic lifting boom barriers to be used in Britain were installed at the level-crossing at Warthill Station. In May 1961 a contract for further modernisation work on the route was agreed with the engineering firm Westinghouse. Within weeks the first consignments of equipment were being delivered to Pocklington. The main part of the plan was to reduce costs further by making the line single-track with passing loops at Pocklington and Market Weighton. Work was also set to include the conversion of 19 of the line's 22 gated level-crossings to automatic half-barriers and an overhaul of the signalling system, allowing the whole route to be controlled from fewer signal boxes.

Closure

The modernisation scheme was suddenly halted in February 1962, with owners British Railways announcing that the plans had been suspended for "re-assessment". What was happening became clear on March 27, 1963 when Richard Beeching released his report. The York to Beverley route was earmarked for closure by Beeching on the dubious grounds that it was actually losing money when all the "terminal costs" were taken into account, and that closing the seemingly profitable line would create greater savings that were more beneficial than the income it was making. Beeching also argued that the majority of passengers were simply travelling between York and Hull and that the stations in-between were underused. This made the line an unnecessary duplicate of a different line between the two cities (the current Hull to York Line via Selby) despite the fact that the more direct line was far from underused. The election of a Labour government in 1964 appeared to hand the route a lifeline but Harold Wilson quickly backtracked on his electoral promises to halt the rail closures. Protests from local authorities along the route and concerns of the official railways watchdog were ignored and the Transport Secretary, Barbara Castle approved the closure. The final trains ran on November 27, 1965 with the very last being a six-car DMU running the 9:42 p.m. from York to Hull.

The line today

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Reopening?

In recent years there has been considerable public support among local residents for the reopening of the line between York and Beverley. There has even been campaigning to this effect, led largely by the Minsters Rail Campaign pressure group who argue that the railway was unfairly closed and that East Yorkshire's roads, particularly the A1079, are struggling to cope with increasing traffic to and from Hull. A report by the Carl Bro Group for East Riding of Yorkshire Council in 2004 concluded that the project was feasible, but would cost around £239 million to build. [cite web|url=http://www.minstersrail.org.uk/Carl%20Bro%20full%20report.htm|title=Hull to Beverley to York Rail Corridor Study Feasibility Final Report|author=Carl Bro Group Ltd|accessdate=2008-01-22] The council subsequently gave their complete backing to the proposals, however no further developments have taken place.

Due to British Rail's selling off of the line's assets shortly after closure, parts of the trackbed in areas like Huntington, Stamford Bridge and Pocklington have now been irreversibly re-developed for housing. If the line is ever reconstructed at all it would be impossible for it to follow its original route the whole way.

tations

Stations along the closed route from York to Beverley. All the stations between Earswick and Market Weighton were designed by the eminent railway architect George Townsend Andrews as was the original 1841 station at York until the present station, designed by Thomas Prosser and William Peachey, opened in 1877. Of the 12 intermediate stations between York and Beverley, only six (Earswick, Stamford Bridge, Pocklington, Londesborough, Market Weighton and Kiplingcotes) were still operating by the time the line closed in 1965. The stations at York and Beverley remain open.

*York (Branched off from York to Scarborough Line)
*Earswick
*Warthill (Connected to Sand Hutton Light Railway)
*Holtby
*Stamford Bridge
*Fangfoss
*Pocklington
*Nunburnholme
*Londesborough Park (Private station for the Londesborough Hall estate.)
*Londesborough
*Market Weighton (Junction with Selby to Driffield Line)
*Kiplingcotes
*Cherry Burton
*Beverley (Connected to Yorkshire Coast Line to Cottingham and Hull)

References