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Leeds City station is the mainline railway station serving the city of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. The station provides connections to London and the south, York, Newcastle and the north, and Manchester and Liverpool and the west, as well as to local and regional destinations. It is also the terminus
for trains running on the scenic Settle to Carlisle line. It is located to the south of City Square, at the bottom of Park Row, behind the landmark Queens Hotel.
The station is situated on a hill falling from the south of the city down to the Leeds canal basin; much of it is supported on brick vaulted arches, the space provided by which is used for car parking and some business premises. It was extensively refurbished in circa 2002, with the construction of a new footbridge to replace an underpass; the addition of a new platform at the south side, the reopening of platforms at the north side, lengthening of existing platforms, and the relaying of the majority of track, points and signals serving the station approaches. The new track layout improves efficiency by separating trains travelling to different destinations, preventing them from having to cross each other's routes. Ancillary improvements include a new multi-story car park and station entrance, and some improvement to the retail facilities within the station arcade. Outlets include Wetherspoons, Burger King, McDonalds, 2 branches of WH Smith, Boots, Upper Crust and a Marks & Spencer simply food store.
The station was previously extensively rebuilt in the 1930s and replaced three stations previously on the site. Leeds Wellington Street station, to the north of Leeds City station
remained in use as a parcels depot, and during the recent rebuilding has become part of
the main station. Unlike the rest of the station, which has been extensively modernised,
the existing canopies were preserved. The former Leeds Central station, to the north of
Wellington Street station, has been demolished.
Leeds City station is of note in that it retained ticket barriers during the 90's; during this
time barriers were removed from almost every British Rail station.
External links
- Live departure board (http://www.livedepartureboards.co.uk/ldb/summary.aspx?T=LDS) for Leeds station, showing current train movements
- Street map (http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&db=pc&addr1=&client=public&addr2=&advanced=&addr3=&pc=LS14JB&cidr_client=none) of Leeds station, from Multimap
- Aerial photograph (http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=public&X=430000&Y=433500&scale=10000&width=700&height=400&gride=429941&gridn=433266&lang=) of Leeds station, from Multimap
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