25 places with two stations: 6 Wakefield

Saturday 22nd March 2025

I first became familiar with Wakefield’s two railway stations, Westgate and Kirkgate, 50 years ago when embarking on my full time bus industry career in 1975 with the National Bus Company’s West Riding subsidiary based in the city.

I recall arriving, carrying a heavy suitcase (no wheeled suitcases in those days), as a fresh faced 21 year old at Wakefield Westgate having travelled up from Kings Cross to what, at that time to a born and bred Londoner, was an alien Yorkshire county and which, I hasten to add, soon became a great friend and a part of the country I fell in love with.

Like other main line stations in the 1970s, Westgate had received a makeover in the 1960s when its 19th century heritage had been demolished in favour of pretty basic and austere facilities which even by 1975 gave the appearance of having seen better days, becoming tired looking and dated.

But nothing prepared me for a return journey from a weekend back down south a few weeks later on a dark and wet Sunday evening when engineering works meant London main line trains were diverted after Doncaster via Wakefield Kirkgate to Leeds and I alighted at what I found to be the most uninviting station of all time. I still recall feeling very inhibited by the uncared for nature of the station, it’s dark and dingy platforms and awful subway towards the exit.

Indeed, over thirty years later in 2009, after even further deterioration in its condition, Wakefield Kirkgate was awarded the accolade of being Britain’s worst station by Lord Adonis, Secretary of State for Transport, such was its deplorable state and unkept nature. However, the Grade II listed station, which had originally opened in 1840, thankfully, was fully restored between 2013 and 2015 in a £5.6 million refurbishment and is now regarded as something of a case study for retaining railway heritage architecture with a modern twist.

Meanwhile, Westgate which originally opened in 1867, was also given a much welcome modernisation between 2009 and 2013 as part of a regeneration project of the wider area. The entrance was moved further north so instead of at the southern end of platform 1 was relocated towards the north end with access off Mulberry Way instead of Westgate.

The rebuild also included a new footbridge and lifts as well as an attractive new pedestrian entrance/exit, ticket office, waiting area and retail units.

It was, and still is, a huge transformation on what went before.

Westgate is by far the busier of the two stations.

Run by LNER, it saw 2,057,000 passenger journeys in 2023/24 compared to Northern Rail run Kirkgate with 539,000 passenger journeys.

The two photographs above featuring the passenger entrance/exit to each station confirms Westgate has a very attractive wide area beyond the gateline whereas Kitkgate has a narrow gateway with no gateline giving quite a contrast, but it’s actually Kirkgate which has the more impressive exterior…

… particularly for an unstaffed station. Although, Grand Central has the use of some of the ground floor offices for a reception area for its passengers…

… but it wasn’t open on the day of my recent visit.

Westgate lies on the main line between Leeds and Doncaster which sees LNER (half hourly – Mondays to Fridays – Kings Cross to Leeds with extensions to Harrogate) and Cross Country inter-city trains linking stations from as far afield as Edinburgh and Plymouth (hourly) as well as Northern trains on local services between Leeds and Doncaster, Leeds and Sheffield and between Leeds and Knottingley.

Kirkgate is mainly served by Northern trains (Leeds to/from Sheffield, Nottingham and Lincoln, as well as Knottingley) but also sees Grand Central’s four journeys a day between Bradford Interchange and Kings Cross and also a relatively new Trans Pennine Express hourly service between York and Manchester Piccadilly.

This is the first pair of stations featured in this series where there’s a direct connection between them.

Northern’s hourly service between Leeds and Knottingley uses a single track section of line between the two.

There’s also a West Yorkshire Metro free city circular bus route…

… which runs from outside both stations linking Kirkgate with Westgate but takes a bit of a circuitous route.

The bus stop at Kirkgate is right outside the station…

… and is very close at Westgate too.

It takes about 20 minutes to walk between the two.

The two stations offer a great contrast. Kirkgate has three platforms with platform 1 being adjacent to the main building through which passengers enter and exit…

… from here there’s the aforementioned subway which was given a major refurbishment during the station’s restoration…

… and is now a pleasant facility to use with landscapes featured on the walls painted by a local artist…

… albeit it is quite a trek down and up the slopes…

… and then you have to walk along platform 1 to and from the entrance/exit.

Platforms 2 and 3 have the remains of what was part of the dilapidated building…

… which I assume was part of the deal to retain some of the Grade II listing during the restoration.

It makes for a rather unique structure.

Next to this structure is a building housing an enclosed waiting area for passengers…

… and what looked like a facility for staff at the unstaffed station.

There’s not a lot of room on the island platforms 2 and 3…

… with minimal space for passengers to wait behind the yellow line, particularly on platform 2.

Back over on platform 1 there are plenty of empty offices…

… and in the small entrance area a drinks/snacks machine and two of Northern’s giant sized ticket machines…

… together with a Photo-Me booth as well as a rather nice independently run café.

Although not as busy as Westgate there were quite a lot of passengers using the station during my visit, especially waiting for TransPennine’s train to York.

Not surprisingly Westgate has a lot more facilities for passengers. There’s a rather nice original waiting room on platform 2…

… with subtantial seating…

… and both an accessible and ordinary toilet.

The waiting area on platform 1 is at the southern end where the old entrance/exit used to be…

There’s also a room marked ‘Information’ on platform 2, but it was closed when I visited…

… maybe because there’s another smart looking ‘Customer Information Point’ in the foyer area by the gateline.

Next to that is a bank of three ticket vending machines and a three position ticket office, but only one was open when I visited last week.

As well as the two waiting rooms on both platforms, there’s a waiting area in the entrance foyer…

… and a first class lounge just beyond the gateline next to the ‘Station Management Centre’ alongside a machine where anyone without a ticket can purchase one…

… before exiting through the gateline which is at the bottom of the stairs from the footbridge from platform 2.

Retail facilities include a WH Smith, Greggs and Costa Coffee making it the most substantial station yet visited in this series…

… and, I must say, very clean and presentable too.

More toilets can be found on platform 1…

… with more seats liberally located along the platforms including a bank of eight in a recess not under the canopies by the footbridge on platform 2 where it’s nice to sit and soak up the sun … on a sunny day.

Other facilities include a water bottle refill machine on platform 1…

… the now standard excellent LNER displays showing the next train departures, complete with sign language…

… and an inter-active touch screen display showing departures which is ideal for taking background selfies too.

Both Westgate…

… and Kirkgate have a track through the middle so trains can be bypassed while stopping in the platform.

And, finally, I think I spotted where the entrance to the subway used to be at the southern end of platform 2 at Westgate…

… and which I passed through 50 years ago.

Roger French

Did you catch the five previous blogs in this series? 1: Hertford; 2: Canterbury. 3: Wigan, 4 Dorchester, 5 Windsor.

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