Thornton-in-Craven railway station

Thornton-in-Craven railway station served the small village of Thornton-in-Craven in North Yorkshire (formerly the West Riding of Yorkshire), England. It was a stop on the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway between Colne, Skipton and Bradford.

History
The station was built by the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway and opened in 1848. It was known simply as Thornton, with the in-Craven suffix added to the name in 1937.

Situated on the edge of the village and below it, the station closed in 1970, along with the railway; it had previously avoided earlier closure proposals in 1959 and the Beeching Axe of 1963. The closure notice for the village's railway station was met with indifference; it was pointed out by residents that the bus service was frequent and reliable and the station was remote from the village. The service had also been poor in latter years, with just two eastbound and four westbound trains calling each weekday and no calls at all on a Sunday.

The last trains ran on Sunday 1 February 1970, with the line closing the next day. The track through the station was lifted later that year and the main building on the westbound platform demolished by 1973.

The site today
The former station house survived demolition and is now privately owned; the trackbed is used as a shared-use path, with a parking area for the nearby cricket ground.

Future proposals
The railway between Colne and Skipton is proposed for reopening to enable a cross-Pennine service; it would allow residents access to Leeds within one hour. This campaign is being promoted by SELRAP (Skipton East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership). One of the scoping reports commissioned by SELRAP notes that there would be only two intermediate stations between Colne and Skipton, at Foulridge and Earby. Thornton-in-Craven does not appear as a proposal for reopening.