Doncaster railway station

Doncaster railway station is on the East Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom, serving the town of Doncaster, South Yorkshire. It is 155 mi down the line from London King's Cross and is situated between Retford and York on the main line. It is managed by London North Eastern Railway.

It is a major passenger interchange between the main line, Cross Country Route and local services running across the North of England. It is also the point for which London North Eastern Railway services branching off to Leeds diverge from the main route continuing north towards Edinburgh.

History
The railway station was built in 1849 replacing a temporary structure constructed a year earlier. It was rebuilt in its present form in 1938 and has had several slight modifications since that date, most notably in 2006, when the new interchange and connection to Frenchgate Centre opened.

In May 2015, construction commenced on a new Platform 0 to the north-east of the station adjacent to the Frenchgate Centre on the site of the former cattle dock. It will be used by terminating Northern services to Hull, Beverley, Bridlington and Scarborough. This will allow these services to operate independently of the East Coast Main Line. It is joined to the rest of the station via a fully accessible overbridge.

Station Masters

 * G.R.H. Mullins 1849 - 1855 (afterwards stationmaster at Boston)
 * William Ruxton ca. 1863
 * David Greenwood ???? - 1877
 * James Bradford 1877 - 1878
 * Charles Ratchelous 1878 - 1885
 * James L. Rayner 1885 - 1892
 * George Bolt ca. 1892 - 1896
 * William Henry Lindsey 1896 - 1915
 * Thomas Christopher 1915 - 1917
 * Fred Warriner 1917 - 1921
 * Mr. Trotter 1921 - 1922
 * George Herbert Gregory 1923 - 1933
 * E.H. Fowler 1933 - 1937
 * Edwin Oliver Wright 1937 - 1940
 * R.P. Haw 1940 (acting)
 * J.E. Fisher ca. 1951

Platforms
The station has nine platforms on three islands. Platforms 1, 3, 4 and 8 can take through trains. Platforms 2 and 5 are south-facing bays, and 0, 6 and 7 are north facing bays. A First Class Lounge is available on platform 3A.

Platform 0 is scheduled to take almost exclusively Northern services to and from Hull, Beverley and Bridlington. The brand new platform opened on 12 December 2016.

Platform 1 is scheduled to take southbound London North Eastern Railway, Grand Central and Hull Trains trains towards London King's Cross. London North Eastern Railway services come from Leeds and Edinburgh, Grand Central services from Bradford Interchange to London King's Cross, which operate non-stop from Doncaster and Hull Trains services from Hull.

Platform 2 has no scheduled trains and is not normally for public use.

Platform 3A is scheduled to take some southbound East Coast Main Line trains towards London King's Cross - London North Eastern Railway services here usually originate in York calling at all stations along the route (Retford, Newark North Gate, Grantham, Peterborough, and Stevenage); and the platform is scheduled to take some southbound Hull Trains services to London King's Cross.

Platform 3B takes services to Sheffield and Manchester / Manchester Airport, operated by Northern and TransPennine Express and will take services from Sheffield when there is congestion.

Between platforms 3 and 4 are the high speed up and down lines from London

Platform 4 is scheduled to take northbound London North Eastern Railway services towards York, Newcastle and Edinburgh; Hull Trains services to Hull; Northern through services to Bridlington and Scarborough from Sheffield; and TransPennine Express services to Cleethorpes. However, southbound CrossCountry services towards Birmingham New Street and beyond also depart from this platform.

Platform 5 is a bay platform used for Northern and East Midlands Railway services to Sheffield and Lincoln Central (some of which extend to Peterborough).

Platform 6 is a bay platform used almost exclusively for Northern commuter services to Leeds.

Platform 7 is seldom in public use, but when it is, is used for Northern services towards Scunthorpe via all stations.

Platform 8 is used for northbound London North Eastern Railway services towards Leeds; and CrossCountry services to Newcastle; and local services in both directions - south to Sheffield and north to Adwick. The platform is also used for Northern local services to Scunthorpe via all stations. Southbound CrossCountry services are also scheduled to use this platform, but only at times when the station is otherwise congested.

There are presently no ticket barriers in operation at this station; however on Race Days (at Doncaster Racecourse), manual ticket checks are in operation in the subway.

The station has been recently refurbished in 2006 and is now directly connected to the 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. There is a newsagent and some food outlets. More recently, interactive touch screens have been installed around the station by London North Eastern Railway services to provide information about local attractions, live departures and disruptions and station facilities. As well as this, mobile phone charging points are now available on the concourse, touch screen, self service ticketing machines have been installed across the concourse and the stairways to the subway have now been divided into two way systems to improve the flow of passengers during peak times.

In a route study by Network Rail it was proposed that new platforms could be built on the western side of the station to meet demand expected in the future.

In March 2019, it was revealed that there were plans, as part of the East Coast improvement programme in Control Period 6, to add an additional platform at Doncaster.

Services
Seven train operating companies (or TOCs) call at Doncaster, which is the highest number of companies in the UK and is also equal in number only to Crewe in the UK. Train operators include the following:

CrossCountry

CrossCountry have dropped most Doncaster to Edinburgh services. They offer an hourly service to Newcastle and Reading with one service per day running through to both Edinburgh Waverley and Guildford or Southampton Central. The majority of CrossCountry services at Doncaster use 4-car Voyager DEMUs (Class 220s).

East Midlands Railway

East Midlands Railway offer a limited direct service to London St Pancras and to Leeds, York and Scarborough. Services to London St Pancras run via Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby and Leicester but less often and have longer journey times than London North Eastern Railway services. They also operate a local service to Lincoln which occasionally extends to Sleaford and Peterborough.

Hull Trains

Hull Trains operates services between London King's Cross and Hull or Beverley via Selby.

TransPennine Express

TransPennine Express serve stations towards the east to Cleethorpes, and to the west towards Manchester Airport. TransPennine services operate hourly in each direction generally.

Grand Central

Grand Central offers four trains a day between Bradford Interchange and King's Cross. All Bradford-London services call at Doncaster. Southbound the next stop is King's Cross with a journey time of around 90 minutes - the fastest on the route due to the non-stop nature of the service.

Northern

Northern generally offers services from Doncaster to stations within Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, such as Sheffield, Leeds and Lincoln. It provides stopping services, stopping 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 min from Adwick. The direct London North Eastern Railway service takes, on average, just 14 min.

London North Eastern Railway

London North Eastern Railway offers regular (55 trains per day) direct trains services to London King's Cross, which can be reached in 100-115 mins, depending on the service. All trains to Leeds call at Doncaster, and an hourly service to Newcastle or Scotland (Edinburgh and the once daily Glasgow Central service). London North Eastern Railway also offer services to cities such as Leeds (terminating services), York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen.

There were plans to add platforms 9 and 10 to cope with Eurostar trains but this project was cancelled when it was decided that Eurostar would not serve Britain outside the South East of England.