Seamer railway station serves the village of Seamer in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England. It lies near the end of the Scarborough branch on the TransPennine Express North TransPennine route, east of

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

at its junction with the northern end of the

Yorkshire Coast Line Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. Seamer station is managed by

TransPennine Express TransPennine Trains Limited, trading as TransPennine Express (TPE), is a British train operating company that has operated passenger services in the TransPennine Express franchise area since May 2023. It runs regional and inter-city rail ser ...

, with services being run by both

Northern Trains Northern Trains, Trade name, trading as Northern, is a British train operating company that operates Commuter rail, commuter and Inter-city rail, medium-distance intercity services in the North of England. It is owned by DfT Operator for the Dep ...

and TransPennine Express. The station is actually sited between the communities of Eastfield and Crossgates, about one mile from Seamer. It took the name of Seamer since there was already a

Cross Gates railway station Cross Gates railway station serves Cross Gates, an area in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the Selby Line, operated by Northern east of Leeds railway station. In the past signwriters have been unsure as to the correct spelling ...

in West Yorkshire.

History

Seamer station was opened on 7 July 1845 by the

York and North Midland Railway The York and North Midland Railway (Y&NMR) was an English railway company that opened in 1839 connecting York with the Leeds and Selby Railway, and in 1840, extended this line to meet the North Midland Railway at Normanton railway station, Norma ...

and became a junction station when a branch line to

Filey Filey () is a seaside town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is located between Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Scarborough and Bridlington on Filey Bay. Although it was a fishing village, it has a large ...

was opened the following year (5 October 1846). Its

island platform An island platform (also center platform (American English) or centre platform (British English)) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway inte ...

configuration was chosen to make it easier for passengers to change between the two routes here rather than continuing into Scarborough to do so. A second branch line from the station (the

Forge Valley Line The Forge Valley Line was a 16-mile-long branch of the North Eastern Railway between Seamer and Pickering, in North Yorkshire, England. The line was intended to link Scarborough with Pickering. It opened in 1882 and closed in 1950, with the ...

to Pickering) was opened by the NER on 1 May 1882 - the station subsequently underwent improvements (including the construction of a second signal box and an additional passenger line & platform) in 1911 to accommodate the extra traffic. The Forge Valley line was never particularly busy and it was an early victim of road competition, closing to passengers on 5 June 1950 (less than three years after the nationalisation of the railway system). The track was lifted by 1953 and the additional platform and slow line here was removed soon afterwards. The former station house on the down (eastern) side next to the

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...

(which has been pedestrian only since the late 1980s) still stands, though no longer in rail usage (now a private residence).

Facilities

The station currently only has basic facilities, such as a large shelter on the island platforms, as well as passenger information screens towards the middle of the platforms. The station is unstaffed, but a ticket machine is provided. Step-free access to the platform is via a foot

at the north end - this is supervised from the nearby

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

Services

TransPennine Express

From Seamer Monday to Saturdays there are up to two trains per hour eastbound to

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

and westbound generally an hourly TransPennine Express service to

, with two-hourly extensions to

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

and

Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Piccadilly is the main railway station of the city of Manchester, in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, England. Opened originally as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchest ...

. Through trains to Liverpool Lime Street had been reduced significantly following the COVID-19 pandemic and were finally withdrawn at the December 2022 timetable change. On Sundays, the same service pattern applies.

Northern Trains

operates an hourly service to

Bridlington Bridlington (previously known as Burlington) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is on the Holderness part (Flamborough Head to the Humber estuary) of the Yorkshire Coast by the North Sea. The town is ...

and

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

on the Yorkshire Coast Line. On Sundays, these continue to and . From the next timetable change in December 2019, these will also do so on weekdays and Saturdays. Until

Northern Rail Northern Rail, branded as Northern, was an English train operating company owned by Serco-Abellio that operated the Northern Rail franchise from 2004 until 2016. It was the primary passenger train operator in Northern England, and operated the ...

took over in 2004,

Arriva Trains Northern Arriva Trains Northern was a train operating company in England owned by Arriva that operated the Regional Railways North East franchise from March 1997 until December 2004. History As part of the privatisation of British Rail, the Regio ...

did have services that stopped at Seamer, the current

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

service used to continue to

alongside TransPennine Express services. This service was usually worked by a

Metro Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...

liveried Class 158 DMU, occasionally a Class 155 DMU. There was also a local service from York to Scarborough usually worked by a Pacer DMU or a Class 156. The new TransPennine & Northern franchises (which started in April 2016) was to see service frequency and rolling stock improvements implemented on both routes - the Hull line will have an hourly frequency throughout the week (now implemented), whilst the York line will have two trains per hour on weekdays (one Northern, one TPE) and an hourly service on Sundays. Trains to Liverpool will continue, but they will be diverted via

Manchester Victoria Manchester Victoria station in Manchester, England, is a combined mainline railway station and Metrolink tram stop. Situated to the north of the city centre on Hunts Bank, close to Manchester Cathedral, it adjoins Manchester Arena which was c ...

and . The change to TPE routing took effect in 2018, but Northern's plans for a York service are currently on hold due to a shortage of rolling stock."New train service for Malton and Norton delayed"
Dunning, D ''Minster FM'' news article 15 October 2019; Retrieved 19 November 2019

Route

References

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

External links

{{Railway stations in the Borough of Scarborough Railway stations in the Borough of Scarborough DfT Category F2 stations Former York and North Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1845 Railway stations served by TransPennine Express Railway stations served by Northern Stations on the Hull–Scarborough line George Townsend Andrews railway stations