Leeds railway station facts for kids

Leeds railway station, also known as Leeds City Station, is one of the biggest train stations in the United Kingdom. It's the largest station in Leeds and the main place for public transport in West Yorkshire. You won't find a bigger train hub in Yorkshire or the North East of England.

Network Rail looks after this station, and it's one of only 17 like it in Great Britain. It's the busiest station in England outside of London. In fact, it's the second busiest station in the whole UK, not counting London stations, after Glasgow Central.

Station History

The North Concourse, a busy part of the station.

The South Concourse, another main area.

Leeds City Station was first built as Leeds New Station. It worked alongside another station called Leeds Central Station, which is now closed. Leeds City Station has been rebuilt twice. Once in 1963 and again in 2002.

In 2008, new automatic ticket barriers were put in place. These replaced the old ticket booths where people used to buy tickets from staff.

Future Plans

There are exciting plans for Leeds City Station!

New South Entrance

One plan is to build a new entrance on the South side of the station. This would make it much easier for passengers to get to places like Bridgewater Place and Granary Wharf. Right now, they have to walk from the North side and through a tunnel under the station.

High Speed 2 and New Platforms

As part of the High Speed 2 project, a new station called Leeds New Lane railway station is planned for the South side. This new station will be connected to the current Leeds City Station by a bridge.

Because so many trains now use Leeds railway station, there are also ideas to build even more platforms. This would help handle all the passengers and trains.

Where Trains Go

Leeds City Station is a very important hub. You can catch trains to many big cities from here.

Long-Distance Journeys

Trains from Leeds go to places like London, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. You can also travel to coastal towns like Kingston upon Hull and Scarborough.

Local Services

There are also many local trains that connect Leeds to nearby towns and cities. These include Wakefield, Bradford, Huddersfield, Halifax, York, and Harrogate.

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  Commuter trains. A Northern Rail train (British Rail Class 144) in the West Yorkshire Metro colours. These trains are used for daily trips around Leeds.

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  An East Coast British Rail Class 43. This train route starts from London Kings Cross and stops at Peterborough, Doncaster, Wakefield Westgate before ending at Leeds.

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  A Metro train heading to Bradford Forster Square. These trains run on electric lines to Bradford Forster Square, Skipton and Ilkley.

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  A First Transpennine Express train. These trains travel from Leeds to Kingston upon Hull, Newcastle upon Tyne, Middlesborough and Scarborough in the East. They also go to Manchester Picadilly, Manchester Airport, Liverpool Lime Street and Blackpool North in the West.

Images for kids

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  The North Concourse (Wellington Quarter) designed by William Henry Hamlyn in 1937/38. The shops on the right used to be entrances to platforms.

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  The 6-foot tall 'LEEDS' letters inside the main entrance to the station.

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  A view of the platform hall.

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  The Western Entrance into the railway station.

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  Neville Street passes right under the railway station.

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  Railway lines in central Leeds in 1913.

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  The River Aire and the Southern station entrance.

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  The railway station as it looked in 1974.

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  A trolley point showing the historical name of 'Leeds City' after the 2002 rebuilding.

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  Leeds City South Station: west end, pictured in 1961.

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  Platforms three to five.

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  A view of the outer platforms.

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  A picture showing how new HS2 platforms (blue) will connect to the existing Leeds station platforms (pink).