Ripon railway station

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Ripon railway station served Ripon, North Yorkshire, on the Leeds-Northallerton Line between Harrogate and Northallerton. It opened to goods traffic on 5 January 1848 and to passengers on 1 June 1848 (an inaugural service ran on 31 May 1848). Passenger trains to the south began in September 1848. The line goes south across the Ure Viaduct to Wormald Green.

The original station was mainly wooden. It was rebuilt in 1854 at a cost of £3,840. The station stood on the north bank of the River Ure, about a mile north of Ripon city centre. It had two platforms, a main building on the northbound side, plus a loading dock, goods shed, timber dock, turntable and water columns. It could handle general goods, cattle, horses, parcels and passengers, and had a 5-ton crane. Royal visits by Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra occurred in 1866 and 1885.

The station later came under the North Eastern Railway, then the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923. After nationalisation in 1948 it became part of the Eastern Region of British Railways. It was closed to passenger trains on 5 March 1967 and to freight on 5 September 1969, as part of the Beeching cuts.

Today much of the route through Ripon is a relief road. The station building still stands but is now surrounded by new housing, and it was converted into flats in 1990. There are ongoing campaigns to reopen a Ripon–Harrogate line. A reopening would be expensive (around £40 million) but could start with about 1,200 passengers a day, rising to 2,700. North Yorkshire County Council mentioned reopening in plans in 2015 and 2016, but it is not expected to happen before after 2030.