York – Beverley railway line

York – Beverley
Route length:	55 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from London York to Edinburgh to Scarborough River Foss Earswick A64 Warthill to the Sand Hutton Light Railway Holtby River Derwent Stamford Bridge Capture fossil Pocklington Nunburnholme Londesborough Park Londesborough by Selby Market Weighton to Driffield Kiplingcotes Cherry Burton from Driffield Beverley after Hull

The York – Beverley railway was in the north of England . It ran from York via Market Weighton through the southern Yorkshire Wolds to Beverley in East Riding of Yorkshire and was in operation from 1865 to 1965.

history

construction

The construction of a railway line from York via Beverley to Hull was originally promoted by the York and North Midland Railway ( Y & NMR ) and its chairman George Hudson. To consolidate his monopoly in East Yorkshire, Hudson bought the Londesborough estate near Market Weighton in 1845. With this step he came before the Manchester & Leeds Railway , which had also planned the construction of a line to Hull in this area. When the resident canal owners resisted construction, Hudson bought their property at inflated prices.

Parliamentary approval for the route took place in 1846. Due to the mostly flat terrain, the section between York and Market Weighton was opened on October 3, 1847.

In 1849 Hudson had to resign. The reason was a financial scandal in which one of his other railroad companies, the Eastern Counties Railway , was involved. This delayed the construction of the second section through the Wolds to Beverley by a full 17 years. The Y & NMR had to consolidate and in 1854 became part of the North Eastern Railway ( NER ). The construction and planning of new railway lines had to be stopped for the time being.

Before the gap to Beverley could be closed, the NER first had to resolve a dispute with MP Lord Hotham, who owned land east of Market Weighton. In the end, he agreed to a construction on the condition that his property (near Kiplingcotes ) should have its own stopping point and that no trains should run on Sundays. After completing the second section, the first train was finally able to travel the entire route on May 1, 1865.

The line then flowed north of York into the Y & NMR-owned York – Scarborough railway and at the western end north of Beverley into the Hull – Bridlington railway . In 1889 the line was double-tracked, and the level crossing on the busy A64 between York and Scarborough was replaced by an underpass in the 1930s. In 1890, Market Weighton became a railway junction with the complete construction of the Driffield – Selby railway line.

Modernization plans

Despite the closure of several, little-used stops in the 1950s, the line seemed secure at the beginning of the following decade. With a constant high number of passengers, nine trains per day ran in each direction, making the line £ 5,000 annually. A first step in modernizing the line was taken with the installation of the UK's first automatic rail barrier system at Warthill . In May 1961 a contract for further modernization was signed with the engineering company Westinghouse . The first loads of building materials were delivered to Pocklington within weeks . The majority of the renovation plans included reducing operating costs by closing one of the two main tracks, with passing points at Pocklington and Market Weighton. In addition, 19 of the 22 level crossings with gates were to be provided with new automatic half-barriers. In addition, the complete modernization of the signaling system was planned.

Shutdown

If work on the route had only just begun, the project was suddenly put on hold in February 1962. British Railways said operations would have to be suspended in order to "reassess" financial feasibility. With the publication of a corresponding report on March 27, 1963, the fate of the railway line was sealed. Richard Beeching had proposed the line to be closed because, according to his own calculation, it had a negative balance when all costs were included. The closure of the seemingly profitable line should instead allow for greater financial reserves. Beeching also argued that most rail passengers commuted between Hull and York, which would make the route obsolete in view of the parallel existing Hull – York railway (via Selby ). The election victory of the Labor Party in 1964 raised hopes that the line would survive, but Prime Minister Harold Wilson soon had to abandon his election promise to maintain the rail lines affected by the rationalization. Protests from many local authorities along the line were ignored, and Secretary of Transportation, Barbara Castle , also approved the closure. The last trains ran on November 27, 1965; the very last was a diesel railcar with five other wagons, which left at 9:42 p.m. from York train station for Hull.

The route today

Cherry Burton Railway Station

Four years after the closure, all of the former railway areas and the entire capital of the line were sold to local landowners and developers. The sale meant that some houses were built on the former route. Nevertheless, most of the track bed as well as several station buildings and signal boxes have been preserved to this day. The Pocklington train station building has become a Grade II listed building and now houses the sports hall of the school there. In Stamford Bridge , both the station building and the engine shed and the two platforms with the track bed have stood the test of time. The gate at the level crossing on High Catton road is evidence of the fact that the line was not modernized at the time. The imposing brick and cast iron viaduct over the River Derwent near Stamford Bridge also remained and was renovated in 1991. The station buildings of Warthill, Holtby, Fangfoss and Kiplingcotes still exist today.

Market Weighton's station buildings were completely demolished in 1979. At the former Earswick station, there are no more traces of rail operations apart from a signal mast. The mast now stands in front of a pub that was built on the former track bed. Between Market Weighton and Beverley, the track bed was converted into a bike path, the Hudson cycle path .

Reactivation?

Possible course of a new route

Lately a reopening of the route from Beverley to Hull has been strongly supported by the local population. The initiators of a campaign for the construction of the line argue that the railway line has been unfairly closed and that the main roads of East Riding of Yorkshire , particularly the A1079, are no longer able to cope with motorized traffic. A 2004 report confirmed that a possible route would be feasible but would cost around £ 239 million. The East Riding of Yorkshire County Council supports the proposals made, but no further progress has been made.

Due to the land sales by British Rail, construction was carried out in many places along the route, such as at Pocklington, Stamford Bridge and Huntington, a borough of York. If the route were to be realized, it could not be built in exactly the same place.

However, East Riding of Yorkshire County Council documents, published in 2006 as part of the Local Development Framework Transport Development Plan, suggested new route options that included the construction of new stops at the same locations.

Web links

Commons : York – Beverley railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE - Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. 1957. p. 16: Report on Level Crossing Protection based on a visit to the Netherlands, Belgian and French Railways by officers of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation and of the British Transport Commission (PDF; 606 kB) Retrieved on March 8 2010.
2. ^ Carl Bro Group Ltd: Hull to Beverley to York Rail Corridor Study Feasibility Final Report . Archived from the original on December 23, 2006. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
3. ^ East Riding of Yorkshire Council: Local Development Framework Transport Development Plan . Archived from the original on April 11, 2009. Retrieved February 11, 2009.