The station opened on 29 May 1839 on the York and North Midland Railway near where it crossed the River Wharfe.[1] It appears to have been redesigned and slightly relocated following the construction of the bridge carrying New Road (the B1223) over the tracks: the first station building was either adjacent and at right angles to the Ulleskelf Arms public house, or directly across the track from the pub on West End Road.[2] Neither of these buildings survives. A 1888 survey shows the station in its current position on the south side of the new road bridge,[3] with a new access road from the east end of the bridge across Hall Garth to the junction of Main Street and a newly-extended Church Fenton Lane, alongside a goods yard built on the site which was a plant nursery on the 1849 map. Further evidence of this change in layout is the terrace called Station Cottages on Main Street at the junction of Church Fenton Lane, now some 200m north of, and out of sight of, the modern station. The station avoided the Beeching Axe in the mid 1960s due to the poor road network in the area (there being no easily accessible road bridge over the river for York-bound commuters).[4] Today the station is unstaffed with all trains operated by Northern. Though there are four tracks, the island platform only serves the eastern pair.
Accidents and incidents
On 24 November 1906, a passenger train, due to foggy conditions, overran signals and ran into the rear of a freight train.[5] Two fatalities were recorded; driver Dunham and fireman Edward Booth were killed instantaneously. Eight others were injured in the collision.[6]
On 8 December 1981, a York to Liverpool express derailed 1,600 feet (500 m) north of the station. Whilst the locomotive stayed upright, all the carriages de-railed and carriages six and seven rolled down a steep bank. This resulted in 24 people requiring hospitalisation with nine of those being serious. One man later died of his injuries. The cause of the derailment was found to be a crack in one of the rails of the Up Normanton line.[7]
Services
Seventeen trains call at Ulleskelf on weekdays and Saturdays, with the majority in the morning and afternoon peak periods. Eight of these run to York northbound and three each to Sheffield via Pontefract Baghill, to Leeds (with one of those continuing to Blackpool North) and to Hull (with one of those continuing to Bridlington) southbound.[8]
Eleven trains call here on Sundays: five trains to York, five to Hull and one to Selby. In addition, one rail replacement bus service runs between York and Moorthorpe (for onward connections to/from Sheffield) in each direction in the early evening. No services run to or from Leeds.
In December 1997, a wheelchair-accessible footbridge opened.
