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Leeds railway station

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Leeds railway station (also known as Leeds City railway station)[1][2][3][4] is the mainline railway station serving the city centre of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is located on New Station Street to the south of City Square, at the foot of Park Row, behind the landmark Queens Hotel. It is one of 20 stations managed by Network Rail.[5] As of December 2023, it was the busiest station in West Yorkshire, as well as in Yorkshire & the Humber, and the entirety of Northern England.[6] It is the second busiest station in the UK outside of London, after Birmingham New Street.

Leeds
National Rail
The New Station Street entrance in August 2022
General information
Other namesLeeds City
LocationLeeds, City of Leeds
England
Coordinates53°47′38″N 1°32′49″W / 53.794°N 1.547°W / 53.794; -1.547
Grid referenceSE299331
Managed byNetwork Rail
Transit authorityWest Yorkshire Metro
Platforms18 - numbered 0-17 (National Rail)
Other information
Station codeLDS
Fare zone1
ClassificationDfT category A
History
Opened2 May 1938
Rebuilt 1967
Rebuilt 2002
Passengers
2018/19Decrease 30.839 million
2019/20Increase 31.021 million
2020/21Decrease 5.854 million
2021/22Increase 19.263 million
 Interchange  1.798 million
2022/23Increase 23.964 million
 Interchange Increase 2.489 million
Location
Map
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail & Road

Leeds is an important hub on the British rail network. The station is the terminus of the Leeds branch of the East Coast Main Line (on which London North Eastern Railway provides high speed inter-city services to London King's Cross every half hour from the station) and is an important stop on the Cross Country Route between Scotland, the Midlands and South West England connecting to major towns and cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Derby, Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance. There are also regular inter-city services to major destinations throughout Northern England including Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield. It is also the terminus for trains running on the scenic Settle & Carlisle line.

The City Square entrance in July 2018

Leeds is a major hub for local and regional destinations across Yorkshire such as to Harrogate, York, Scarborough, Hull, Doncaster and Sheffield. The station lies at the heart of the West Yorkshire Metro commuter network for West Yorkshire providing services to Bradford, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Halifax.

With 24 million passenger entries and exits between April 2022 and March 2023, Leeds is the busiest railway station in the North of England, overtaking Manchester Piccadilly, and the second-busiest railway station in the United Kingdom outside London, after Birmingham New Street.[7]

Description

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The North Concourse (Wellington Quarter) by William Henry Hamlyn dating from 1937/38 – The shops on the right were previously platform entrances
 
The 6-foot high 'LEEDS' letters inside the main entrance to the station
 
Platform hall

The railway station is situated on a hill falling from the south of the city to the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal basin. Much of it is supported on Victorian brick-vaulted arches situated just off Neville Street which contain a centre consisting of cafés, restaurants, shops and exhibition spaces called Granary Wharf, known locally as the Dark Arches.

The railway station has 18 platforms, making it the largest by number of platforms in England outside London. There are 12 terminus and six through platforms. Most platforms are subdivided into up to four sections, i.e. 1a, 1b, 1c etc. Altogether, including the numbers, there are 47 platforms.[8] Retail facilities in the station include coffee shops, fast food outlets, a bar, newsagents, chemists and supermarkets. A British Transport Police station on New Station Street houses officers who police the West Yorkshire railway stations.

Leeds railway station retained staffed ticket barriers through the 1990s until 2008, when they were replaced by automatic barriers by Northern Rail to reduce congestion around the barriers at peak times.[2][9]

Platforms

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Platform usage varies depending on operational circumstances but is generally:

  • 0–5 – bay platforms mostly used by West Yorkshire Metro services operated by Northern, towards Harrogate, Ilkley, Bradford Forster Square and Skipton.
  • 6 is a bay platform used for terminating London North Eastern Railway services from London and London North Eastern Railway services towards Harrogate.
  • 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16 – through platforms. 8 is a through platform that London North Eastern Railway uses for services which both terminate and continue onward to Bradford, Harrogate and Skipton as well as the early morning LNER departure to Aberdeen. CrossCountry services heading north to York and beyond depart from platforms 8, 9 or 11; services heading south use platform 12. Platforms 15 and 16 are used by north/east and south/westbound TransPennine Express services to Hull, Newcastle, York, Scarborough, Middlesbrough, Huddersfield, Manchester Airport and Liverpool Lime Street.
  • 7, 14 – bay platforms used for local Northern services running north/east from Leeds.
  • 10, 13, 17 – bay platforms used for local and regional services running south/west to Manchester Victoria and Huddersfield, alongside southbound services towards Wakefield, Barnsley, Meadowhall, Sheffield and Nottingham.
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The Western Entrance into the railway station.

Leeds Interchange, located at the New Station Street exit, provides onward transport connections from the station. There are five bus stands serving Arriva Yorkshire, First West Yorkshire and Flyer routes 1, 4, 4F, 5, 14, 16, 16A, 19, 19A, 40, 444, 446, 870, A1 and DalesBus services 874 and 875. A 24-hour taxi rank also operates at the interchange.

Further bus stops are located on Neville Street below the railway station, as well as around City Square outside the railway station. Infirmary Street and Boar Lane bus points are a short walk for more bus connections.

Cycle hub

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Leeds Interchange hosts one of the UK's first cycle hubs that allows a number of cycling services including repair, storage and rental. The facility opened in summer 2010 and is designed to encourage visitors and commuters into Leeds to continue their journey from the railway station by bike.[10] Its design is based on the Dutch cyclepoint concept.[11]

History

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Past railway stations

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Neville Street passes under the railway station in June 2006
 
Railway lines in central Leeds in 1913. Leeds New station (as known then) is in the centre, coloured red and yellow.
 
The River Aire and southern station entrance in June 2018
 
The 1967 rebuilt Leeds railway station, Class 45 no.102 on platform 8 West seen in 1974
 
A trolley point showing the historical name of 'Leeds City' after the 2002 rebuilding, photo taken in April 2010

The railways arrived in Leeds in 1834, when the Leeds and Selby Railway (which became part of the North Eastern Railway) opened its line. It had a terminus at Marsh Lane east of the city centre. In 1840, the North Midland Railway (a constituent of the Midland Railway) constructed its line from Derby via Rotherham to a terminus at Hunslet Lane to the south. It was extended to a more centrally located terminus at Wellington Street in 1846, known as Wellington Station.[12]

Another railway station, Leeds Central on Wellington Street, was opened in 1854 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). The railway station became owned jointly by the LNWR and the North Eastern Railway, but other companies had powers to run trains there, including the Great Northern Railway and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.[13]

In 1869, New Station opened as a joint enterprise by the LNWR and the North Eastern Railway. It connected the former Leeds and Selby Railway Line to the east with the LNWR lines to the west. A mile-long connection was built, carried entirely on viaducts and bridges. New Station was built partially on a bridge over the River Aire, adjacent to Wellington railway station. The arches created under the station are known as 'The Dark Arches'.[14]

The map to the right shows the variety of different railway lines in Leeds in 1913. Following the 1921 Railways Act, when railways in Great Britain were grouped into four companies, New Station was jointly operated by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).[12]

1938 rebuilding

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Leeds City South Station: west end, in 1961

The first rationalisation occurred in 1938, when two railway stations (New and Wellington) were combined to form Leeds City Station, opening on 2 May that year. This was designed by LMS architect William Henry Hamlyn. The third railway station, Leeds Central, was unaffected by the change. Part of Wellington railway station later became a parcels depot. The north concourse and the Queens Hotel were built at this time.

Leeds Blitz

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Main article: Leeds Blitz

In March 1941, the Luftwaffe launched attacks on Leeds, Armley, Beeston and Bramley. Leeds New Station was one of the primary targets, along with the Town Hall, Kirkgate Markets, the Central Post office, the Quarry Hill flats, Hotel Metropole and part of the Inner Ring Road. The station was bombed, causing damage and an unknown number of casualties, and was later rebuilt.

The Transport Act 1947 nationalised nearly all forms of mass transport in Great Britain and came into effect on 1 January 1948.[15] British Railways came into existence as the business name of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission (BTC) on 1 January 1948.

1962 British Railways House

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Main article: City House

In 1962, British Railways House, now City House, was added to the railway station. It was designed by architect John Poulson providing British Railways with administrative buildings. The building became dated and hard to let before refurbishment in 2009. The building was lambasted in 1967 by poet John Betjeman who said it blocked all the light out of City Square, and was a testament to money with no architectural merit. In 2010 the building was bought by property company Bruntwood which is (as of 2017) redeveloping it to provide serviced offices, with a new look to the façade.

1967 rebuilding

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In 1967, further remodelling of the site took place and trains using Central Railway Station were diverted into the City Railway Station which became the main railway station serving the city. Central Railway Station was closed and has been demolished. The viaduct leading to Central Railway Station is one of many disused viaducts near Leeds Railway Station. Engineering work included replacing 100-year-old bridges over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, the construction of the south concourse and an overall roof, along with major platform and track layout alterations and the commissioning of a new power signal box to control the railway station area.

At the time of this rebuilding, the railway station was served by 500 trains on a typical day, with 2.75 million passenger journeys a year. Wellington (or City North) became entirely devoted to parcels traffic at this time with the track layout extensively changed. The remaining Midland line trains which previously used City North station were diverted into the City South station, the former LNWR/NER 'New' station, and called simply Leeds from this time.

Electrification

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The station had overhead electrification installed under the ownership of British Rail in 1988, to facilitate usage of the new Class 91 services on the East Coast main line.[16]

2002 rebuilding

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Platforms three to five in February 2006
 
Outer platforms in October 2015

By the 1990s, the railway station's capacity was exceeded on a daily basis, and the 1967 design was deemed inadequate. Between 1999 and 2002, a major rebuilding project took place, branded as Leeds 1st. This project saw the construction of additional approach tracks at the western end of the railway station, improving efficiency by separating trains travelling to or from different destinations and preventing them from having to cross each other's routes. The railway station was expanded from 12 to 17 platforms, with the construction of new platforms on the south side, and reopening of the disused parcels depot to passengers on the north side.

The majority of the track, points and signals were also replaced and the 1967 power box closed – control being handed over to the signalling centre at York. The most visible change to passengers, however, was the replacement of the 1967 metal canopy with a new glass roof, considerably increasing the amount of daylight on the platforms. A new footbridge was also provided, replacing the previous underpass. Ancillary improvements included a new multi-storey car park and railway station entrance, refurbishing the North Concourse and expanding retail facilities.

A small temporary railway station called Leeds Whitehall was provided to handle some services while the railway station was being remodelled. This was used between September 1999 and February 2002.[17]

2008 work

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In 2008, automated ticket gates were installed in place of the human-controlled ticket checking, to speed up the passage of passengers. When the gates came into operation at the end of October 2008, they suffered from several faults including accepting expired tickets.[18] An oversight on the part of Northern also meant that the gates were not compatible with West Yorkshire Metro Cards.[19]

Southern entrance

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A £17.3 million southern entrance to allow for easier access from the south completed on 3 January 2016.[20][21] It widens the railway station's western footbridge and provides escalators, stairs and lifts to a partial deck over the River Aire in an iconic structure. The deck provides access to either side of the river for passengers to access Granary Wharf and Little Neville Street or Holbeck. It contains extra ticket vending machines and cycle storage. Around 20%[20] of passengers are expected to use the new entrance.[22][23]

South concourse and platform zero

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Work on a new terminal platform alongside platform 1 (labelled platform 0) began in late 2018 and was completed in January 2021.[24][25]

In November 2018 Network Rail began work to improve the south concourse. The first phase of works aimed to reduce congestion by moving and expanding ticket barriers. A new transparent roof was installed, matching the design at the Southern entrance, with works completed in October 2019.[26][27]

Accidents and incidents

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  • 13 January 1892, a fire broke out in the arches underneath the station carrying the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The fire burnt for two days, with the heat buckling the rails and causing significant damage to the permanent way. One person died when a platform collapsed underneath him.[28]
  • On 23 July 1993, a passenger train ran into the rear of another occupying a platform. Twenty-one people were injured.[29]
  • On 17 April 1997 a small bomb planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army exploded at a relay cabinet near the station, causing the city centre's closure for six hours.[30][31]

Future

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Leeds railway station is the second-busiest railway station outside London in the United Kingdom,[32] being a very busy railway station, expansion is needed. Passenger numbers at Leeds are expected to surge by 63% by 2029, meaning further expansion is necessary.[33] Future expansion might link the station to the proposed High Speed 2 network.

Future remodelling

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In October 2017, it was proposed that the station could be remodelled for the proposed HS2 scheme. The proposal includes new platforms on the northside of Leeds as well as HS2 services running into the existing east–west platforms as well as the proposed terminal platforms allowing links to proposed 'Northern Powerhouse Rail'.[34] In November 2017, details were released about how the station might look.[35]

Expansion

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Plans are being drawn up to expand the railway station's capacity with new lines and platforms alongside platform one in the Riverside Car Park on the site of the original Leeds Wellington railway station to cater for predicted growth. Also Metro announced plans to replace platform 1 with three separate platforms using the car park next to it. This would increase platform numbers from 17 to 20.

HS2 platforms

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A graphical mock-up showing how the proposed HS2 platforms (blue) were to be joined to the existing Leeds station platforms (pink).

The original plans for High Speed 2 proposed a separate new station in Leeds to the south of the River Aire at New Lane.[36][37] However, a later review in November 2015 instead recommends that HS2 platforms be added to the existing station.[38] These would attach to the southern part of the existing station building, and span the river in a north–south alignment to create a 'T' shape.

Whilst not directly linking the rail lines, it will allow a common concourse for easy interchange between high speed and classic rail services. These plans were approved by the Government in November 2016.[39][40]

However, on 18 November 2021, Grant Shapps (Transport Secretary) announced that the eastern leg of HS2 would be cancelled, terminating at East Midlands Parkway instead of going all the way to Leeds.[41] Eventually, the leg reaching East Midlands Parkway was scrapped too, with no new track north of Birmingham Curzon Street.[42]

Services

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The railway station is served by long-distance services operated by CrossCountry, London North Eastern Railway and TransPennine Express, as well as local and regional services operated by Northern. It is the hub of the Metro network in West Yorkshire. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) and trains per day (tpd) is

London North Eastern Railway

CrossCountry

TransPennine Express

Northern Trains

Preceding station     National Rail   Following station
CrossCountry
London North Eastern RailwayTerminus
TransPennine Express
Terminus
TerminusNorthern
Wharfedale Line
Northern
Airedale Line
Northern
Settle-Carlisle Line
Northern
Leeds-Morecambe Line
Northern
Leeds-Bradford Line
Northern
Harrogate Line
Northern
Blackpool North–York
NorthernTerminus
Northern
Halifax–Hull
NorthernTerminus
Northern
Northern
Northern
Leeds–Nottingham
Northern
Leeds–Lincoln

Former services

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East Midlands Railway (EMR) and its predecessors operated a number of services to and from London St Pancras via the Midland Main Line until May 2022. Two evening northbound and two morning southbound services operated primarily to cycle InterCity 125 sets through Neville Hill TMD.[49] After EMR withdrew its last InterCity 125 sets in May 2021, the service was reduced to a single northbound service operated by a Class 222. It was withdrawn in May 2022.[50]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Leeds Station". Network Rail Virtual Archive. Network Rail. 7 March 2012. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Leeds Railway Station". Railway-Technology. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  3. ^ "Automatic ticket gates at Leeds City Station".
  4. ^ "leedsliveitloveit". leedsliveitloveit. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  5. ^ "Commercial information". Our Stations. London: Network Rail. April 2014. Archived from the original on 10 April 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  6. ^ "ORR Statistics 2022-23" (PDF).
  7. ^ "ORR Statistics 2022-23" (PDF).
  8. ^ Yonge, John (September 2006) [1994]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 2: Eastern (3rd ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 37A. ISBN 0-9549866-2-8.
  9. ^ "Travel Tools – Automatic ticket gates". Northern Rail. Archived from the original on 3 May 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  10. ^ "Bicycle hire and storage scheme opens at Leeds Station". BBC Yorkshire. 27 September 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  11. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 June 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ^ a b Dawson, Anthony (2018). The early railways of Leeds. Stroud. ISBN 978-1-4456-6781-2. OCLC 1064104121.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. ^ Measom J. (1861) Official illustrated guide to the Great Northern Railway.
  14. ^ Burt, Steven (1994). The illustrated history of Leeds. Kevin Grady. Derby: Breedon. pp. 141, 169, 172, 249. ISBN 1-873626-35-5. OCLC 60077045.
  15. ^ Her Majesty's Government (1947). "Transport Act 1947". The Railways Archive. (originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office). Archived from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 25 November 2006.
  16. ^ East Coast Main Line Rail Route Upgrading, United Kingdom
  17. ^ Quick, Michael (2020). Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain; a Chronology (PDF) (5 ed.). Market Drayton: Railway & Canal Historical Society. p. 261. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 July 2021. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  18. ^ "Barriers accept wrong tickets". BBC News. 18 November 2008. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  19. ^ "Your Views: The problems with Leeds railway station's new ticket barrier". Yorkshire Evening Post. 30 October 2008. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  20. ^ a b "New station entrance given approval" (Press release). 31 October 2013. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  21. ^ "Leeds Rail Station - new southern entrance (LSSE)".
  22. ^ "Have your say on Leeds Station Southern Entrance plans" (Press release). 2 December 2011. Archived from the original on 9 February 2013. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
  23. ^ "£500m blueprint to transform Leeds Station revealed". 11 October 2017.
  24. ^ "Brand new Platform Zero to be built at Leeds train station as hundreds of car parking spaces disappear" Johnson, K Leeds Live news article 16 November 2018; Retrieved 31 January 2020
  25. ^ Jagger, David (7 January 2021). "£161m improvement work at Leeds train station completed". Telegraph & Argus. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  26. ^ Holden, Alan (11 October 2019). "Leeds Station, more improvements to come following roof replacement". RailAdvent.
  27. ^ "Leeds station improvements". Network Rail. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
  28. ^ Steel, Wilfrid L (1914). The History of the London & North Western Railway. London: The Railway and Travel Monthly. p. 441. OCLC 1063588438.
  29. ^ "Collision at Plymouth station 3 April 2016" (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. Rail Accident Investigation Branch. February 2017. p. 35. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  30. ^ McKittrick, David (19 April 1997). "Our chaos strategy is working, says IRA". The Independent.
  31. ^ "IRA brings Britain to a halt". An Phoblacht. 24 April 1997.
  32. ^ "ORR Station usage 2022–23" (PDF). Office of Rail Regulation. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  33. ^ "Network Rail unveils plans for Leeds station | Global Rail News". Rail.co. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  34. ^ "Investment to improve high speed rail links - Yorkshire Post". Archived from the original on 13 October 2017.
  35. ^ "Images reveal how remodelled Leeds station could look". 6 November 2017.
  36. ^ "Phase Two: Leeds". HS2. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  37. ^ "HS2 plan and profile maps: Woodlesford to Hunslet and Hunslet to Leeds New Lane Station". GOV.UK. HS2 Ltd. 27 April 2016.
  38. ^ "The Yorkshire Hub" (PDF). Department for Transport. p. 10. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  39. ^ "HS2: North West and Yorkshire routes confirmed". BBC News. 15 November 2016.
  40. ^ High Speed Two: Crewe to Manchester, West Midlands to Leeds and beyond. Department for Transport. November 2016. ISBN 9781474137980. Retrieved 18 March 2022. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  41. ^ "HS2 rail leg to Leeds scrapped, Grant Shapps confirms". The Guardian. 18 November 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  42. ^ "HS2 to only reach West Midlands".
  43. ^ "CrossCountry December 2023-June 2024 Timetable" (PDF).
  44. ^ "CrossCountry December 2023-June 2024 Timetable" (PDF).
  45. ^ "TransPennine Express Leeds-Scarborough/Newcastle Central Timetable December 2023-June 2024".
  46. ^ "TransPennine Express Liverpool Lime Street/Manchester Piccadilly-Newcastle Central/Hull Paragon via Leeds Timetable December 2023-June 2024".
  47. ^ "Northern Trains December 2023-June 2024 Timetable".
  48. ^ "Northern Trains December 2023-June 2024 Timetable".
  49. ^ Timetable 18 August 2019 East Midlands Railway
  50. ^ Cautious changes for post Covid era Modern Railways issue 884 May 2022 page 63

Further reading

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  • Haigh, Phil (25 February – 10 March 1998). "A station for the 21st century...". Rail. No. 325. EMAP Apex Publications. pp. 20–24. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699.
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