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Scarborough railway station

Coordinates: 54°16′47″N 0°24′20″W / 54.2798°N 0.4055°W / 54.2798; -0.4055
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This article is about the railway station in England. For the station in New South Wales, see Scarborough railway station, New South Wales. For other uses, see Scarborough station (disambiguation).

Scarborough
National Rail
The entrance to the station
General information
LocationScarborough, North Yorkshire
England
Coordinates54°16′47″N 0°24′20″W / 54.2798°N 0.4055°W / 54.2798; -0.4055
Grid referenceTA039883
Managed byTransPennine Express
Platforms5
Other information
Station codeSCA[1]
ClassificationDfT category C1
History
Opened1845
Passengers
2020/21Decrease 0.270 million
2021/22Increase 0.841 million
2022/23Increase 0.863 million
2023/24Increase 0.897 million
2024/25Increase 1.001 million
Listed Building – Grade II
FeatureScarborough railway station
Designated8 June 1973
Reference no.1243452[2]
Location
Map
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Scarborough, formerly Scarborough Central, is a Grade II listed[2] railway station serving the seaside town of Scarborough, North Yorkshire. It lies 42 miles 6 chains (67.7 km) east of York[3] and is one of the eastern termini on the North TransPennine route; it is managed by TransPennine Express[4] and is also served by Northern Trains. The station is also at the northern end of the Yorkshire Coast line and is reputed to have the longest station seat in the world at 456-foot (139 m).[5][6]

From 1907 until 2010, the station approaches were controlled from a 120-lever signal box named Falsgrave; this is sited at the outer end of platform 1 and close to the former excursion station at Scarborough Londesborough Road. In its final years, Falsgrave box controlled a mixture of colour-light and semaphore signals, including a gantry carrying 11 semaphores. The signal box was decommissioned in September 2010 and the gantry was dismantled and removed in October 2010. Its new home is at Grosmont railway station, on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The new signalling is a relay-based interlocking with two- and three-aspect LED signals controlled from an extension to the existing panel at nearby Seamer.[7][8]

History

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Former signal gantry in July 1986. Number 4468 Mallard can be seen in the background

Scarborough station opened on 8 July 1845,[9] following the completion of the line from York. To accommodate excursion traffic, two new platforms were added in 1883, now known as platforms 1 and 2. Separate waiting rooms and more facilities were provided. The station clock, built by Potts of Leeds and costing £110 (equivalent to £11,564 in 2025) [10], was added in about 1884.[citation needed]

Accidents and incidents

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On 10 August 1943 Scarborough station was the scene of an accident between two trains at platform 5. The late-running 09:05 express from Hull was wrongly routed by the signalman and hit the 11:18 stopping train, which was waiting to depart. Four passengers in the first coach of the stopping train – all soldiers – were killed, eight received serious injuries and a further 22 suffered minor injuries. Nobody was injured on the express train.[11]

Facilities

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The long seat on Platform 1 previously covered by a roof.

Scarborough station has a Travel Centre, ticket office, touch-screen ticket machines and a Pumpkin Cafe. The main building has a small waiting room.[12]

Platforms 3–5 are partly covered, as is platform 1, which reputedly features the longest railway bench in the world at 456-foot (139 m) in length.[13][14][15]

Benches are provided throughout the station, which is staffed at all times. The station also has two payphones, a vending machine and luggage trolleys, as well as toilets and cycle racks. Step-free access is available to all platforms.[16]

Passenger volume

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Passenger Volume at Scarborough[17]
2002–03 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23
Entries and exits 666,788 747,858 751,998 765,730 772,824 803,466 828,594 857,430 906,544 880,202 910,637 927,022 940,706 979,098 989,952 958,026 973,424 270,262 840,994 862,784
Interchanges –[nb 1] 1,031 909 3,270 2,029 2,279 1,781 1,907 2,043 2,412 2,320 1,088 1,265 3,228 3,361 1,729 0 0 0 0

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

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North-eastbound view from platform 1

The typical daily service from the station is:

TransPennine Express

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The basic Monday - Friday off-peak service pattern, as of May 2025, is as follows:[18]:

There is 1 tpd that extends to serve Manchester Airport

Rolling stock used: Class 185 Desiro and Class 802 Nova 1.

Northern Trains

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Monday to Saturday:[19]

Sunday

Other operators

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From 2000 until 2019, Midland Mainline and successors East Midlands Trains and East Midlands Railway operated one return service from and to London St Pancras via Doncaster on summer Saturdays; these were run initially with Class 170s and later Class 222s.[20][21]

Previously in summer, West Coast Railways operated a steam locomotive-hauled Scarborough Spa Express services from York; however, a regular planned service has not operated for some years, and now only the occasional charter train is operated.[22]

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Northern TrainsTerminus
TransPennine Express
  Historical railways  
Y&NMRTerminus
East Midlands Railway
Disused railways
TerminusScarborough & Whitby Railway

Service improvements

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The new TPE and Northern franchises, which started in April 2016, were committed to improved service frequencies and rolling stock on both lines[23] – the York route was have two departures per hour instead of the previous one as of December 2019, both operators offering an hourly service as far as York, whilst the Hull line now has an hourly timetable seven days per week.[24][25] The latter was introduced at the May 2019 timetable change, but plans for the York line to go to 2tph have since been put on hold due to lack of available rolling stock.[26]

Trains to Liverpool were also diverted west of Stalybridge to travel via Manchester Victoria and Newton-le-Willows (reverting to the route they used prior to May 1989). The improved service saw a new £7 million train servicing depot built in Scarborough to maintain the rolling stock.[27]

Local connections

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This station offers access to the Cleveland Way
Distance to path 1 mile
Next station anticlockwise Whitby 21 miles
Next station clockwise Filey 7 miles

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ No data available.

References

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  1. ^ "Railway Codes". railwaycodes.org.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  2. ^ a b Historic England. "Scarborough Railway Station (1243452)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
  3. ^ Bridge, Mike, ed. (2017). TRACKatlas of Mainland Britain: A Comprehensive Geographic Atlas Showing the Rail Network of Great Britain (3rd ed.). Sheffield: Platform 5 Publishing Ltd. p. 72. ISBN 978 1909431 26 3.
  4. ^ "Scarborough (SCA)". National Rail. 2023. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  5. ^ "Longest bench gets smart new look". The Scarborough News. 23 March 2003. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  6. ^ "'World's longest station bench' seats record crowd in Scarborough". BBC News. 30 September 2025. Retrieved 6 April 2026.
  7. ^ "Signalling In The Future at Scarborough" (Press release). Network Rail. 18 December 2009. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2009.
  8. ^ Williams, Alan (December 2010). "Farewell, Falsgrave". Modern Railways. London. pp. 16–17.
  9. ^ Quick 2023, p. 406.
  10. ^ UK Consumer Price Index inflation figures from 1209–2024 based on data from "Inflation calculator". Bank of England. London. 18 February 2026. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
  11. ^ "LNER report on the 1943 accident" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2008.
  12. ^ "Scarborough Train Station | Trains to Scarborough & Times | Northern". www.northernrailway.co.uk. Retrieved 6 April 2026.
  13. ^ "New lease of life for station". BBC News. 6 December 2010. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  14. ^ Wainwright, Martin (1 August 2012). "Yorkshire has its Day – and the world's longest railway platform seat". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  15. ^ Bickerdyke, Paul, ed. (November 2018). "When Saturday came: Scarborough". Rail Express (270). Horncastle: Mortons Media: 23. ISSN 1362-234X.
  16. ^ Scarborough station facilities Archived 29 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 8 December 2016
  17. ^ "Estimates of station usage | ORR Data Portal". dataportal.orr.gov.uk. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  18. ^ Table 39 National Rail timetable, May 2025
  19. ^ Table 24 National Rail timetable, May 2025
  20. ^ Now it's Midland Mainline to Scarborough The Railway Magazine issue 1189 May 2000 page 39
  21. ^ A New Era for the East Midlands as Abellio starts its fifth franchise Today's Railways UK issue 214 October 2019 page 24
  22. ^ "The Scarborough Express Spa Journey". West Coast Railways. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  23. ^ "North Yorkshire Welcomes Rail Franchise Improvements". Yorkshire Coast Radio. 9 December 2015. Archived from the original on 27 April 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  24. ^ "Northern franchise improvements". Archived 24 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine Department for Transport. n.d.
  25. ^ "TransPennine Franchise Improvements". Archived from the original on 29 March 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  26. ^ "New train service for Malton and Norton delayed" Archived 29 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine Dunning, D Minster FM news article 15 October 2019; Retrieved 19 November 2019
  27. ^ "Rail Firm Invests £7m in Scarborough". Yorkshire Coast Radio. 4 December 2017. Archived from the original on 26 April 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2018.

Bibliography

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