Commondale railway station


Commondale railway station serves the village of Commondale in North Yorkshire, England. It is located on the Esk Valley Line and is operated by Northern Trains who provide all of the station's passenger services.

History

The North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway opened an extension line from to in stages between 1858 and 1865. Even though the line through Commondale was opened in April 1861, it would be some years before the North Eastern Railway furnished the remote dale with a station. As the area was populated with small hamlets mostly engaged in agriculture, no station was provided immediately, but a siding was furnished for the Cleveland Fire Brick & Pottery Company. The CFBaPC attracted a workforce which led to a significant rise in the population, which in turn prompted a station to be built in 1891. Previous to this, a signal box had been installed to control the west facing branch to the brickworks and the junction was used to board passengers with the name of Commondale Siding being used as a station name. Records indicate that in 1885, six years before Commondale was given full official station status, 3,555 passenger tickers were sold totalling a revenue of £99.
Even with the increased population, passenger numbers were low and apart from the freight siding, the station did not handle any goods during its lifetime. It did have several station masters though they resided at the other station that they had responsibility for from 1930 onwards. The station became the first in the area to become an unstaffed halt; this was effective from 16 January 1950.
The station is now on the Esk Valley Line and is just short of from to the west, and from to the east. The single platform, on the northern side of the line, has a single brick building, in the same style as other buildings in the hamlet, as opposed to stone built buildings at most other places on the line.

Services

The station has four departures per day each way to Middlesbrough and Whitby. There is also a late Friday evening service in summer.