Clapham railway station

Clapham is a railway station on the Bentham Line, which runs between Leeds and Morecambe via Skipton. The station, situated 48 mi north-west of Leeds, serves the village of Clapham in North Yorkshire. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.

Immediately to the east of the station, the line crosses the River Wenning on a tall, eight-span viaduct.

The station was formerly known in the national timetable as Clapham (Yorkshire), to distinguish it from Clapham (London). The latter was renamed Clapham High Street in 1989.

History
The station was opened by the "little" North Western Railway (NWR) on 30 July 1849 on their line from Skipton to Ingleton and became a junction the following year when the link along the Wenning Valley from Bentham was completed on 1 June 1850 to finish the route from Lancaster to Skipton.

The Ingleton route was subsequently extended northwards, as the Ingleton Branch Line, through Kirkby Lonsdale and Sedbergh to join the West Coast Main Line at Low Gill (near Tebay) by the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (L&C) in 1861, but disagreements between the L&C's successor, the London and North Western Railway, and the Midland Railway (who had leased the NWR in 1859) over running rights and the subsequent construction of the Settle-Carlisle Line, meant that it never became the major Anglo-Scottish route that the NWR had originally intended.

The Ingleton Branch was closed to passenger traffic on 1 February 1954 and completely in July 1966, although regular goods traffic had ended some months earlier. Lifting of the track followed in April 1967. A sharp curve (with a permanent 35 mph speed restriction) marks the site of the former junction, immediately west of the station.

The station ceased to handle goods traffic in 1968, when the remaining sidings were taken out of use & dismantled and the station signal box closed. It then became an unstaffed halt in October 1970 - the old station house still stands, but is now a private residence.

The proximity of the old station platforms to the Wenning viaduct (and resulting safety concerns due to the steep drop) saw infrastructure operator Railtrack change the layout here in 1998. The eastern platform was refurbished, resurfaced and shortened at its eastern end, whilst a new wooden westbound platform was constructed on the opposite side of the footbridge to its predecessor (which was then demolished) and the bridge steps modified. As a result, the station is similar to neighbouring Giggleswick in having a wooden platform for westbound trains and a stone one for eastbound services.

Facilities
Waiting shelters are present on each platform, along with train information notice boards, but there are no toilets. At present, no ticket machine is available, so tickets can only be purchased on the train or in advance. The footbridge linking the platforms does not have ramps, so the westbound (trains heading towards Lancaster) platform is not accessible for disabled passengers: step-free access is possible on the eastbound (trains heading towards Leeds) side.

Northern Rail have successfully applied for planning permission to install a ticket machine and electronic train departure boards, and also to provide a public toilet on the eastbound platform. The ticket machine and PIS displays were due to be installed in 2019, but as of 2021, only the PIS displays have been installed.

Services
Service improvements were introduced in the May 2019 timetable. There are now eight trains each way Mondays to Saturdays and five trains each way on Sundays. Most trains run between Leeds and Morecambe, but some early morning and evening services terminate at Lancaster or Carnforth. The first Monday to Saturday westbound train starts from Skipton and the last Monday to Saturday eastbound train terminates there.

There is no longer a through service to Heysham Port - passengers must change at Lancaster for onward connections.