Settle is a railway station on the Settle and Carlisle Line, which runs between and . The station, situated north-west of Leeds, serves the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

Settle Settle or SETTLE may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places * Settle, Kentucky, United States, an unincorporated community * Settle, North Yorkshire, a town in England ** Settle Rural District, a historical administrative district Music * Settle (band), an 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 is owned by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

and managed by

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 ...

. The market town is also served by the railway station at

Giggleswick Giggleswick, a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, lies on the B6480 road, less than north-west of the town of Settle and divided from it by the River Ribble. It is the site of Giggleswick School. Until 1974 it was part ...

, situated about a mile to the south-west; it is on the Bentham Line, which runs between

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

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

via

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

History

The station was designed by the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

company architect John Holloway Sanders. The station was opened with the line on 1 May 1876 and was originally named ''Settle New'' to distinguish it from the nearby station on a different route, which was renamed ' at the same time. Settle New was renamed ''Settle'' on 1 July 1879, by which time Settle Old had become Giggleswick. Goods facilities were withdrawn from the station in 1970. The station was

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

on 9 March 1984. The platforms are linked by an ex-

North British Railway The North British Railway was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, ...

footbridge that was formerly located at Drem station in

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

, until electrification of the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...

made it redundant. It was then dismantled and re-erected here in 1993 to allow the old barrow crossing at the north end of the station to be taken out of regular use; the crossing is still available for wheelchair users when the station is staffed. The former station

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 ...

, which had been out of railway use since 1984, was relocated further north to be adjacent to the Down platform in 1997; it is open to the public on most Saturdays. The

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

situated near the station in the former goods yard was converted into residential accommodation in 2011. It has subsequently been featured in several television documentaries.

Facilities

The station is located very close to the town centre and is staffed on a part-time basis. There is a range of facilities available, including a waiting room, toilets and a souvenir shop in the main buildings on the southbound platform. There is a period stone-built waiting room located on the northbound platform and a new stone and glass shelter on the southbound side. A ticket machine is available for use when the booking office is closed. Train running information is provided by timetable posters, a PA system and digital information screens.

Accidents and incidents

On 21 January 1960, an express passenger train derailed just to the north of the station (near the village of Langcliffe) and then collided with a northbound freight due to a defect on the BR Standard Class 7 locomotive hauling it. Five people were killed and nine were injured.

Services

Monday to Saturdays there is generally a two-hourly service southbound to Leeds (nine trains a day in total Mon-Sat) and northbound to (eight). The last train of the day from Leeds runs only as far as and the corresponding return to Leeds starts back from there. Trains terminated or started from either Appleby or from the spring of 2016 whilst

repaired a major

landslip Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslide ...

at Eden Brows (between Armathwaite & Carlisle). A replacement bus service was in operation over the affected section until the project to repair the line was completed in March 2017. The project was completed on schedule and the line reopened to traffic on 31 March 2017. On Sundays there are now six trains in each direction throughout the year (including one through train to & from ); the additional summer service between and Carlisle via and (northbound in the morning, returning south in the afternoon) operated by Northern Rail under the DalesRail brand did not run in 2023 and has now been withdrawn. A replacement service on Saturdays from 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 started in June 2024, with two trips each way up to Ribblehead. They are timed to connect with Leeds to Carlisle trains to allow access to stations further north. The new Northern franchise awarded to

Arriva Rail North Arriva Rail North Limited, branded as Northern by Arriva, was a train operating company in Northern England which began operating the Northern franchise on 1 April 2016 and inherited units from the previous operator Northern Rail. A subsidiary ...

in December 2015 and which started in April 2016, saw modest service improvements from the station implemented from the May 2018 timetable change, with one extra weekday service each way and two extra trains each way on Sundays.

References

External links