Real history

The history of railways in Leeds is a mess of rivalry, co-operation, interference and desire. The first railway to arrive in Leeds was the Leeds and Selby in 1834, with its carefully graded route to the port of Selby from Marsh Lane (east of the city centre). The next arrival was the North Midland Railway when it opened its line south to Derby in 1840 from a terminus at Hunslet Lane in the Pottery Fields area to the south of the River Aire. With the arrival of the Leeds and Bradford Railway at Leeds Wellington in 1846 (the site of this is now part of the current Leeds City station complex), the North Midland was extended to use this as its Leeds terminus. The next arrival was the Leeds and Manchester Railway in 1848 (though around this time they were taken over by the LNWR) to a cramped terminus at Wellington Street. Two years later, with the support of the Leeds Northern Railway, and with running rights granted to several other companies, this terminus was replaced by Leeds Central Station.

For the following 20 years not much changed, though the LNWR grew increasingly dissatisfied with the sharing arrangement, and the North Eastern Railway (having taken over the Leeds and Selby) similarly so with their lack of a cross city route past their terminus at Marsh Lane. A number of proposed cross city extensions were rejected by Leeds Council due to the disruption and demolition their building would necessitate. Finally in 1869 an alignment was agreed upon, and Leeds New (the site of the current station) was built just to the south of the Midland's Leeds Wellington Station by the LNWR and NER. At this point there were 4 railway companies operating to 3 different stations serving the center of Leeds.

The situation changed at grouping, when this was reduced to 2 companies operating to the same stations, but still managing to share operations at two of them. Despite the obvious problems these caused, and the displeasure of council at the state of affairs, nothing changed till 1938, when Leeds Wellington and Leeds New stations were combined to form a single station re-named as Leeds City. After nationalisation, it was

quickly realised that significant rationalisation of the network in Leeds was required. Despite the fact that we'd "never had it so good", it took over 10 years to complete the redevelopment owing to seemingly constant spending reviews. Finally, in 1967, following the building of a couple of connecting chords, and the rebuilding of several bridges and most of the existing station, Leeds City became the only city center station in Leeds.

A further pause of 35 years saw another rebuild of City Station. The development of Leeds as a financial centre during the '90s drove increasing demand for inter-city travel to London, and for commuter travel from the rest of Yorkshire. This lead to Leeds City reaching capacity for much of the day, with no scope to improve services. The Leeds First rebuild increased the station from 12 to 17 platforms, and re-arranged most of the approaches. With continued growth, even this is struggling to cope, and there are plans to further expand to meet anticipated demand.

Leeds South

The North Midland, dissatisfied with suggestion of a station site cramped on one side by the River Aire, and on the other by a Navigation, persuaded the Leeds and Bradford to build their terminus to the south of the City Centre, with the Aire effectively culverted beneath the platforms. This extended the existing line from Hunslet North, and required a chord to be built to join the North Midland / Leeds and Bradford line to Bradford. Shortly after, under the suggestion of two local landowners, a branch was built to serve the river side industry down the Aire valley, with a line running round the east and north of Leeds to supposedly serve the growing communities there. As passenger services grew, a north facing chord was built under the main lines to reach the suburban platforms on the west side of the station, allowing trains to arrive without having to reverse.

When the NER tried to build their cross city line, the city council insisted that it must be close enough to Leeds South to allow the joint LNWR/NER station to be linked to it. Despite their best efforts, the council had its way, and the new station was built with a covered way allowing easy interchange between services from the South, and the east-west services on the cross city line.

With the opening of the Settle Carlisle line, Leeds South became even busier, with London - Scotland expresses calling to change engines, London to Yorkshire expresses terminating there, and the growing demands of suburban rail, the original station soon became limiting. Rather than extending the river bridges, 4 new shorter suburban platforms were built on the West side, much like the Kings Cross suburban platforms. These incorporated the parcels depot, allowing dual use of platforms depending on operational needs.

By the turn of the century, this meant that Leeds was served by 3 busy stations, Central, City, and South, served by 4 different companies, with Central station shared by 3 companies, City by 2, and South by just one. Grouping simplified this not at all, Central and City still being shared by the LMS and LNER. Though City and South were joined, the city council were still unhappy that 3 distinct stations were needed to serve the city, but no agreement could be reached to reduce the number.

After nationalisation, it was quickly realised that a significant rationalisation was required. The obvious candidate for removal was Central, being separate to the remaining two. With unheard of speed, the necessary track changes were implemented, and Central station closed to traffic in the early 1950's. When DMUs appeared, they were introduced onto Leeds South services as an experiment, and their success amazed even the most optimistic of predictions. The clean, efficient services reversed years of declining passenger numbers, with doubling of passenger numbers within months. The Beeching years came, and with duplication being seen as a bad thing, something had to give. As the lesser of the two stations, Leeds South came under threat, with complete closure and transfer of all services to City station proposed. The popularity of the Adel line services, and the difficulties in fitting all the express and suburban services into a single station meant that the whole station couldn't be closed. Instead, the mainline platforms, and the link to City station were closed, and a new, minimum cost station building provided for the suburban platforms.

Having survived the Beeching cuts, the shift to the car started taking its toll. By the early 80's (the first period modelled) freight traffic along the branch had been reduced to a single trip working a day, now worked through the station as the direct chord had been removed to reduce costs. The regular, hourly train along the branch ran most of the day, meeting the odd service still timetabled to appear at South from the Aire valley line. Longer distance loco hauled trains still make an occasional appearance, as do the regular parcels and post trains. With the reduction in service, only the central island platform remained in passenger use, of the other two, one was left to nature, the other remained in service as parcels platform, and for freight reversing.

The reorganisation of British Rail in the mid '80s led to the creation of the speed-link freight network, and a revival of interest in use of rail transport to the riverside industry. Localised management of the commuter network increased awareness of local needs, and lead to the introduction of extra peak-hour services, and longer running days, aided by the introduction of new build DMUs. Leeds South was no longer deserted for much of the day, with more off peak services terminating, as well as peak. Freight traffic increased to two trips per day, both generally at capacity. Parcels and mail traffic continued, though now had to start fitting in around the increased passenger services.

By the early '90s, the local PTE had recognised the potential for additional services, and funded the reinstatement of platform 4 to allow more peak services to be handled. Loco hauled passenger services were now a distant memory, but more regional services were terminating to relieve pressure on City. Freight was still running at 2 services a day, but these services were getting increasingly full. Service levels remain high throughout the day, and have begun to run late into the night.

Privatisation came along soon afterwards, and after a few years of settling down, services had changed again. With Leeds City being full for most of the day, almost all innovative new services ended up at Leeds South, a Northern / Scotrail joint service to Glasgow sees Scottish units making occasional appearances, similarly, extended Midland mainline and Central Trains services add to the variety of liveries. As peak services increase, South is full for much of the peak, meaning the parcels and mail services, and freight have to be out the way during this time, with trains often stuck in Platform 1 awaiting a path back out as soon as the peak finishes. An innovative Pallet-Rail service has begun, offering door to door pallet-load services via local delivery vans and an overnight distribution network. This, with an additional freight service each day, keeps platform 1 busy for most of the day.

By the mid-noughties, the development of Leeds as a financial and commercial centre has driven demand for passenger services to the point that both stations operate at capacity for most of the day. In order to cope with peak demand, platform 1 was brought back to passenger standards, allowing it to be used during the peak periods, improved efficiency ensuring that mail and parcels trains are clear for the peak period. There is still a wide variety of liveries visible, as more Scottish and Midland services have appeared, and extra Leeds-Manchester trains try to relieve the pressure on the core Trans-Pennine route. As the local area is being redeveloped, demand predictions suggest that crush loadings will be common if nothing is done, so as a stop-gap measure, an extra platform is being brought back into use to allow more 4 coach trains to be run in the peaks, prior to a redevelopment to allow for the return of intercity services, and re-instatement of the direct link to City station.