Ben Rhydding railway station

During Monday to Saturday daytimes services run to/from Leeds and Bradford twice per hour, and there are four services every hour to Ilkley. During Monday to Saturday evenings and all day on Sundays, services are hourly to/from both Leeds and Bradford Forster Square (service to/from the latter was doubled on Sundays from two-hourly at the December 2017 timetable change), with two departures per hour to Ilkley.[1] The station has a small car park, but no other amenities.

Ben Rhydding station, built as part of the Otley and Ilkley Joint Railway, was opened to passenger traffic on 1 July 1866, eleven months after the opening of the railway. In April 1865 the North Eastern Railway Board had "ordered that a small wooden station consisting of booking office, waiting room and retiring room for ladies be provided as a temporary accommodation at Ben Rhydding." Six years later, in May 1871, the Joint Committee reached an agreement with the proprietor of the Ben Rhydding Hydro, that a more permanent station structure should be built at the expense of the Hydro, with a ground rent of a penny per annum, so long as the structures met the approval of the railway engineer, a Mr. Crossley. The Hydro's arrangements with the company lasted until 1885, when the structures - a stone built station house on the south (down) platform and a wooden structure on the north (up) platform - were sold to the railway company for £240. Clients of the hydro were met by the hydro's horse-bus, and later by motor-bus, up until some time after the first world war. The station was opened to goods traffic in 1888, and trailing access sidings were provided on the down side for this purpose. A new signal box was opened in 1901, situated at the Ilkley end of the northern platform. The signal box closed in December 1965. Goods traffic ceased on 5 July 1965, and the sidings later removed. Station staff were withdrawn on 7 October 1968, when 'pay-trains' were introduced.[2] The stone station building has subsequently been demolished, and shelter on both platforms is restricted to simple bus-stop type covered areas.

• Railways Through Airedale & Wharfedale, Martin Bairstow (2004) ISBN 1-871944-28-7

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ben Rhydding railway station.

• Train times and station information for Ben Rhydding railway station from National Rail

Platform 1.

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Burley-in-Wharfedale		Northern Trains Wharfedale Line		Ilkley