Pontefract Monkhill railway station is the busiest station in the town of

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wak ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The station is on the Pontefract Line managed by

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

but is also served by Grand Central and is south east of

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

. The other stations in the town are

Pontefract Tanshelf Pontefract Tanshelf railway station is the most central station in the town of Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England, and serves Pontefract Races, the racecourse located just down the street from the station. It lies on the Pontefract Line ope ...

and Pontefract Baghill.

History

$Pontefract Monkhill Station - geograph$ The lines to Leeds via

Castleford Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the town centre the River Calder joins th ...

and Wakefield Kirkgate separate immediately west of the station, which was opened by the ''Wakefield, Pontefract & Goole Railway'' (one of the constituent companies of the

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways. It was the third-largest railway system based in northern ...

) in April 1848.Body, p. 143 The branch to Castleford (Cutsyke) & Methley Junction was completed the following year (on 1 December) and a pair of short curves were subsequently constructed from the eastern end to link up with the Swinton & Knottingley Joint line following its opening in the spring of 1879. One of these was used by passenger trains between Leeds & Pontefract Baghill until 1964, although it has since been lifted. The Wakefield to

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. According to the 2011 UK census, Goole parish had a population of 19,518, an increa ...

passenger service was withdrawn on 2 January 1967 (although trains to and from Goole continued, running instead to Castleford & Leeds) but the line remained open to carry coal to the power stations to the east of

Knottingley Knottingley is a market town in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England on the River Aire and the old A1 road before it was bypassed as the A1(M). Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 13,503, inc ...

. Services on the Wakefield to Knottingley route were reinstated in May 1992.

Facilities

The station is unstaffed and no longer has permanent buildings other than standard waiting shelters. There is an automated ticket machine on the Leeds bound platform. There are digital information screens and timetable posters on both platforms, along with a customer help point on platform 1. Step-free access is only available from the car park to platform 1, as platform 2 (towards Knottingley and Goole) can only be reached via the footbridge (which has stairs).

Services

From Mondays to Saturdays, there is a roughly half-hourly service operated by

between

and

. In the Leeds direction, alternate trains run via or and . Three trains via Castleford are extended to or from : one service from Goole to Leeds in the morning (which is formed from an empty train that runs towards Goole earlier) and one return trip from Leeds to Goole in the evening. On Sundays the service is hourly, with trains also running alternately via Castleford and Wakefield to Leeds, and no services operate past Knottingley to Goole.

London

In January 2009, open access operator Grand Central was given the go ahead by the

Office of Rail Regulation The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting ...

(ORR) to operate a service between

Bradford Interchange Bradford Interchange is a transport interchange in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, which consists of a railway station and combined bus and coach station adjacent. The Interchange, which was designed in 1962, was hailed as a showpiece of Eu ...

and

London King's Cross King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United Kin ...

which call here (giving the station a regular service to the capital for the first time). Three daily paths in each direction are allocated for these new trains, although one morning northbound service uses a different route between Doncaster and Wakefield and consequently does not call here. The service is operated and branded by Grand Central, using refurbished

Class 180 The British Rail Class 180 is a class of 14 Diesel multiple unit#Diesel–hydraulic, diesel-hydraulic Multiple unit, multiple-unit passenger trains manufactured by Alstom at its Washwood Heath factory in 2000/01 for First Great Western (FGW) . T ...

units, and started on 23 May 2010. However, according to a recent document submitted the ORR, only 15 passengers a day (on average) are making use of the new service. The timetable has though been altered to serve in addition to the other intermediate stops since December 2011, although only one of the three northbound trains actually serves both this station and Mirfield (the evening departure from King's Cross is routed via and and so does not call here, whilst the morning one calls but omits the Mirfield stop). As of 2018, there are three southbound services and two northbound services per day on weekdays. On Saturdays this is increased to four southbound services but reduced to one northbound service. There is no Grand Central service on Sundays.West Yorkshire and Doncaster timetable
/ref>

Notes

References

*Body, G. (1988), ''PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2'', Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough,

External links

$Pontefract Monkhill stn p1$ {{Railway stations served by Northern Trains Railway stations in Wakefield DfT Category F1 stations Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Northern franchise railway stations Pontefract Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Railway stations served by Grand Central Railway