Doncaster railway station

Doncaster
Location
Place	Doncaster
Local authority	Doncaster
Coordinates	53°31′21″N 1°08′22″W / 53.5225°N 1.1395°W / 53.5225; -1.1395Coordinates: 53°31′21″N 1°08′22″W / 53.5225°N 1.1395°W / 53.5225; -1.1395
Grid reference	SE571032
Operations
Station code	DON
Managed by	East Coast
Platforms in use	8
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	2.772 million
2005/06 *	2.837 million
2006/07 *	2.791 million
2007/08 *	2.903 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	South Yorkshire
Zone	Doncaster
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Doncaster from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.
UK Railways Portal

Doncaster railway station serves the town of Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the East Coast Main Line 156 miles (251 km) north of London Kings Cross, and is about ten minutes walk from Doncaster town centre. The station is managed by East Coast. It is a major passenger interchange between the East Coast Main Line, Cross-Country services, and local services running across the North of England.

Description

The railway station in Doncaster was rebuilt in its present form in 1938 and has had several slight modifications since that date. The station has 8 platforms on two islands. Platforms 1, 3, 4 and 8 take through trains. Platforms 2 and 5 are south-facing bays, and 6 and 7 are north facing bays. A First Class Lounge for passengers with 'First Open' tickets is available on platform 3A.

The station has recently been refurbished and is now directly connected to the new Frenchgate Centre extension in Doncaster town centre. The station now has a new booking office for tickets and information, three new lifts, refurbished staircases and subway. A branch of WH Smiths and several Costa Coffee outlets have also recently opened. Platform 1 is for the National Express East Coast, First Hull Trains and Northern Rail trains.

Whilst all platforms are currently operational, platform 2 is not currently used for any timetabled service.

1951 accident

On 16 March 1951 a derailment occurred south of the station in which 14 passengers were killed and 12 seriously injured.

Services

Six train operators (or TOCs) call at Doncaster, which is equal to other big stations in the UK.
Train operators which call at Doncaster include:

CrossCountry
CrossCountry offers similar services to the North, but offers a more widespread network to the south, calling at places such as Sheffield, Derby, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Paignton, Plymouth and sometimes as far as Penzance.

East Coast
East Coast offers regular direct trains services to London, which can be reached in 85 - 100 minutes, depending on the service. On many East Coast services, Doncaster is the first stop after departing London King's Cross. Nearly all services call at Doncaster. National Express East Coast also offers services to the North, to cities such as Leeds (terminating services), York, Durham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. On Sundays only the Highland Chieftain from London stops at Doncaster en-route to Inverness.

East Midlands Trains
East Midlands Trains offer a limited direct service to London St. Pancras and to Leeds and York. Services to London run via Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby and Leicester but less often than National Express East Coast; They also operate a local service to Lincoln which occasionally extends to Sleaford and Peterborough.

First TransPennine Express
First TransPennine Express serve stations from Doncaster towards the East to Cleethorpes, and to the West, as far as Manchester Airport, providing Doncaster with a direct link to Manchester Piccadilly. First TransPennine services operate hourly in each direction generally.

First Hull Trains
First Hull Trains operates services from London - Hull, via Doncaster & Selby.

Northern Rail
Northern Rail generally offers services from Doncaster to stations within Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, such as Sheffield, Leeds and Lincoln. They provide stopper services, which stop at every station along-route, and 'fast' services, stopping at just the principal stations. It is possible to travel on Northern Rail to Retford from Doncaster, via Sheffield, on a direct train. However this involves a journey of 80 minutes. The direct National Express East Coast service takes, on average, just 14 minutes.

Other Plans
Grand Union also plans on commencing a route from Bradford Interchange to London King's Cross, under the name Grand Northern calling at Doncaster station, although timings have yet to be finalised. Provisional approval for a service of three trains a day each way was granted by the Office of Rail Regulation in January 2009. Grand Northern have now got full approval for their new service between Kings Cross and Bradford Interchange. This will start running at the December 2009 timetable change, and will be branded under the Grand Central name.

There were plans to add platforms 9 and 10 to cope with Eurostar trains but this was cancelled.

In the media

In 1973 the station was featured in the first episode of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, entitled Strangers on a Train. It starred James Bolam and Rodney Bewes although only Bolam was featured in location filming at the station, which took place in late 1972.

Although it is not known whereabouts in the station the scenes were placed, signs for Grimsby Town and Scunthorpe are visible behind Bolam.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Doncaster railway station

• Train times and station information for Doncaster railway station from National Rail
• Frenchgate Interchange

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