Harrogate line

Harrogate line
144008 at Headingley, May 2006.
Overview
Type	Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	West Yorkshire North Yorkshire Harrogate York Leeds Yorkshire and the Humber
Termini	Leeds York
Stations	14
Operation
Opened	1848
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	Northern Virgin Trains East Coast
Depot(s)	Neville Hill
Rolling stock	Class 43 "HST" Class 142 "Pacer" Class 144 "Pacer" Class 150 "Sprinter" Class 153 "Super Sprinter" Class 155 "Super Sprinter" Class 158 (occasionally)
Technical
Line length	39-mile (62 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Harrogate line is a passenger rail line through parts of North Yorkshire and the West Yorkshire area of northern England connecting Leeds to York by way of Harrogate and Knaresborough. Service on the line is operated by Northern, with a few additional workings by Virgin Trains East Coast starting and terminating at Harrogate. West Yorkshire Metro's bus and rail MetroCard ticket is available for journeys between Leeds and Harrogate.

The routes over which the Harrogate line trains now run were opened in 1848 by two of the railways which came to be part of the North Eastern Railway: the Leeds Northern Railway and the East and West Yorkshire Junction Railway. At the time of the 1923 Grouping the Harrogate area formed the junction for five routes: the main line was that from Leeds-Northallerton railway; the other lines were to:

The Leeds station at the time was Leeds Central station, jointly owned by the NER and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway

The line terminated in Harrogate at the Brunswick Station opened in 1848 but closed in 1862 when a new and more central station was opened in Harrogate.

The 39-mile (62 km) line is composed of all or part of the following Network Rail routes:

Currently open stations in bold.

In addition to the regular services on the Harrogate line occasionally when there is a major event on at Headingley Stadium such as an international cricket test match there is an increased service which runs prior to and after each such game. The services run between Leeds and Horsforth stations to cater for a large usage at Headingley and Burley Park railway stations and tickets are sold by Revenue Protection staff at the entrances to the platforms. This is to reduce the queue for tickets at Leeds station. Extra services are also run on the Harrogate line for the Great Yorkshire Show.