Welcome to 'Why Harrogate ?'

About Harrogate

Harrogate is a Victorian Spa Town with a population of 75,070 residents and is one of the fastest growing areas in Yorkshire and the Humber. It is also home to the Harrogate Convention Centre which is a key events centre in the Leeds City Region!

History of the Line

Harrogate was first reached with a line from Wetherby and Spofforth, with a station just South West of Prince of Wales roundabout, called Harrogate Brunswick that opened in 1848! Later came at second station as part of the , this was later renamed from Harrogate to Starbeck when the Leeds & Thirsk railway arrived passing through what is now 'The Great Yorkshire Showground' on its way to Thirsk via Ripon!  They're was even a short branch to Pateley Bridge that opened in 1862 and a branch to Masham in 1865! All what remains today is the line from Leeds to York via Harrogate, via Crimple Valley and Starbeck. Local commuter traffic is served by Northern with London services operated by LNER. 

The line today

The Harrogate Line is a 39 mile rail route that runs between Leeds & York via Harrogate, connecting West Yorkshire & North Yorkshire. The line between Leeds and Harrogate is double track and is operated by modern electric signals, which were installed around 2012 when this section of line was upgraded as part of a 16 million project, that saw the closure and removal of signal boxes at Horsforth and Rigton with control being transferred to Harrogate, increasing efficiencies whilst reducing operating costs. From Harrogate the line is double track to the East side of Knaresborough tunnel  where it reduces to single line for 5.8 miles until it reaches Cattal where it becomes double track once again for approximately 1.75 until the West side of Hammerton station where it reduces back to single track for the next 5.7 miles up until Poppleton where the line becomes double once again. This section of line is operated mainly by Victorian semaphore mechanical signals.

The busiest section of the Harrogate line is of the route between Leeds & Harrogate! 

The following statistics are taken from the offical estimates of station usage published anually by the ORR which can be found here: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage/

The estimated station usage statistics for the Harrogate line are as follows...

                             2019-2020         2024-2025

Burley Park          686,932             756,200

Headingley           377,432            391,286

Horsforth             1,095,902          889,978

Weeton                 82,360               94,500

Pannal                  164,174             191,634

Hornbeam Park    399,756            458,274

Harrogate              1,770,554         1,879,366

Sub total               4,574,110          4,661,238

Starbeck                214,644            267,220

Knaresborough    439,486             605,486

Cattal                     61,562               103,416

Hammerton           28,862               56,850

Poppleton              74,044              120,380

Total                       5,392,708         5,814,590 

Every station upon the Harrogate line between Leeds & Harrogate and between Harrogate & York via Knaresborough has seen rail usage return to pre-pandemic levels but also grow, except that of Horsforth despite this between the periods 2019/20 & 2024/25 the Harrogate rail line has seen usage increase by 421,882 users! 

Prior to the pandemic Network Rail estimated within their 'Leeds Area Strategic Study' that by 2033 high peak services from... 

Horsforth would have over 3 passengers per sqm on average.          

Headingley would have between 2 and 3 passengers per sqm on average. 

Burley Park would have over 3 passengers per sqm on average!  

By 2043 it has been estimated that from Horsforth all high peak services will have over 3 passengers per square meter on average!  

Out of all the lines entering Leeds, the Harrogate Line was estimated to become the most overcrowded if nothing is done! 

Electrification from Leeds to Harrogate!

Overhead wires from Leeds to Harrogate would enable pure electric trains such as the 4 car class 331s/333s to operate between Leeds & Harrogate or any other suitable pure electric train. According to WSP who produced the Harrogate Rail line business case in 2013, this could reduce the journey time between Leeds & Harrogate down by 7 minutes from the current 34/35 to 27/28 minutes based upon the capability of the class 333s that has a top speed of 100 mph! 

Electrifying this line also means cleaner air at stations along the whole route, that runs through some heavily built up residential areas in Harrogate & Leeds! Whilst engineering trains will remain diesel for the time being, these are few and far between in comparison!

Due to being ran by class 170 diesel trains the Harrogate line isn't intergrated with adjacent lines and services such as the Aire Valley which is also intergrated with the Wharf Valley and Bradford Forster Square lines. By intergrating this line, this would also simplfy driver training and improve relaibility by increasing the pool of drivers who can drive trains on this line subject to relevant route learning. Currently drivers can only drive trains that they have been trained to drive! 

Longer trains

Currently platforms at the majority of stations are long enough for 4 car trains having been lengthened many years ago. Currently the majority of services that operate on this line are 3 cars long, at the very least all services should utilize the available platform capacity! Northern has many pure electric trains that are 3 cars long but run in multiple upon adjacent lines, lengthening platforms between Leeds & Harrogate to enable 6 car trains should be considered to provide capacity and flexibility. 

Reinstatement of the York Capacity Scheme

Network Rail began a project to create a 3rd line between Skelton Junction and York station, this would have removed the need for Harrogate line services to cross the East Coast Mainline on approach to York station, mitigating the need to hold services outside of York station in order to let long distance trains pass in front, this is a regular occurance for when heading into York. This project was put on hold and should be restarted! 

In July 2020 Network Rail published their interim 'Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy' that seeked to identify the optimum deployment of traction technologies (battery, electrification and hydrogen) on the UK rail network with the aim  of decarbonizing it!  In relation to the Harrogate line this strategy recommended...

"Electrification from Leeds to Harrogate, battery to York" 

It goes on to say...

"Used by a mixture of stopping and semi-fast services by Northern and LNER this forms a key part of the Leeds suburban network to Horsforth and Harrogate. Mostly services are regional commuter services to York and Leeds. This could act as a potential diversionary route between York and Leeds. Electrification to at least Harrogate is recommended."

Although for it to act as an effective diversionary route the remainder of the line from Knaresborough to York would also require about 11 miles of track to be upgraded from single to double along with signaling upgraded between Harrogate and Poppleton to mitigate impact upon existing local services! 

Knaresborough viaduct is probably one of the most photographed viaducts in the country, utilizing battery trains removes the need to wire this section of line through to York which also resovles issues with the grade 2 listed Knaresborough station and subsquent tunnel. Local residents and those keen to preserve the view of the viaduct as it is today don't have to worry!