The railway station was built in 1849 replacing a temporary structure constructed a year earlier. It was rebuilt in its present form in 1938 and has had several slight modifications since that date, most notably in 2006, when the new interchange and connection to Frenchgate Centre opened. In May 2015, construction commenced on a new Platform 0 to the north-east of the station adjacent to the Frenchgate Centre on the site of the former cattle dock. It is used by terminating Northern Trains services to Hull, Beverley, Bridlington and Scarborough. This allowed these services to operate independently of the East Coast Main Line. It is joined to the rest of the station via a fully accessible overbridge.
Station Masters
G.R.H. Mullins 1849 – 1855
William Ruxton ca. 1863
David Greenwood ???? – 1877
James Bradford 1877 – 1878
Charles Ratchelous 1878 – 1885
James L. Rayner 1885 – 1892
George Bolt ca. 1892 – 1896
William Henry Lindsey 1896 – 1915
Thomas Christopher 1915 – 1917
Fred Warriner 1917 – 1921
Mr. Trotter 1921 – 1922
George Herbert Gregory 1923 – 1933
E.H. Fowler 1933 – 1937
Edwin Oliver Wright 1937 – 1940
R.P. Haw 1940
J.E. Fisher ca. 1951
Platforms
The station has nine platforms on three islands. Platforms 1, 3, 4 and 8 can take through trains. Platforms 2 and 5 are south-facing bays, and 0, 6 and 7 are north facing bays. A first class lounge is available on platform 3A. Platform 0 is scheduled to take almost exclusively Northern Trains services to and from Hull, Beverley and Bridlington. The brand new platform opened on 12 December 2016. Platform 1 is used by southbound London North Eastern Railway, Grand Central and Hull Trains services to London King's Cross. Platform 2 has no scheduled trains. Platform 3A is used by London North Eastern Railway, Grand Central and Hull Trains services to London King's Cross Platform 3B is used by Northern Trains services to Sheffield and TransPennine Express services to Manchester / Manchester Airport Between platforms 3 and 4 are the high speed up and down lines from London Platform 4 is used by northbound London North Eastern Railway services to York, Newcastle and Edinburgh, Grand Central services to Bradford Interchange, Hull Trains services to Hull, Northern Trains through services to Bridlington and Scarborough and TransPennine Express services to Cleethorpes. Southbound CrossCountry services towards Birmingham New Street also use this platform. Platform 5 is a bay platform used by East Midlands Railway services to Lincoln and Northern Trains services to Sheffield Platform 6 is a bay platform used by Northern Trains services to Leeds. Platform 7 is seldom in public use, but when it is, is used by Northern Trains services to Scunthorpe. Platform 8 is used by northbound London North Eastern Railway services towards Leeds; and CrossCountry services to Newcastle; and Northern Trains services in both directions – southbound to Sheffield and northbound to Adwick and Scunthorpe. services towards Birmingham New Street also use this platform. There are presently no ticket barriers in operation at this station; however on race days, manual ticket checks are in operation in the subway. The station has been recently refurbished in 2006 and is now directly connected to the Frenchgate Centre extension in Doncaster town centre. The station now has a new booking office for tickets and information, three new lifts, refurbished staircases and subway. There is a newsagent and some food outlets. More recently, interactive touch screens have been installed around the station by London North Eastern Railway services to provide information about local attractions, live departures and disruptions and station facilities. As well as this, mobile phone charging points are now available on the concourse, touch screen, self-service ticketing machines have been installed across the concourse and the stairways to the subway have now been divided into two way systems to improve the flow of passengers during peak times. In a route study by Network Rail it was proposed that new platforms could be built on the western side of the station to meet demand expected in the future. In March 2019, it was revealed that there were plans, as part of the East Coast improvement programme in, to add an additional platform at Doncaster.
Accidents and incidents
On 9 August 1947, a passenger train was in a rear-end collision with another due to a signalman's error. 18 people were killed and 188 were injured.
On 16 March 1951 a derailment occurred south of the station in which 14 passengers were killed and 12 seriously injured.
Services
Seven train operating companies call at Doncaster, which is the highest number of companies in the UK and is also equal in number only to Crewe and Liverpool Lime Street in the UK. Train operators include the following: CrossCountry
CrossCountry operated hourly services to Newcastle and Reading with one service per day running through to both Edinburgh Waverley and Guildford or Southampton Central. The majority of CrossCountry services at Doncaster use 4-car Voyager DEMUs. East Midlands Railway
East Midlands Railway offer a limited services to London St Pancras, York and Scarborough. It also operate a local service to Lincoln which occasionally extends to Sleaford and Peterborough. Grand Central
Grand Central operates services between Bradford Interchange and King's Cross. Hull Trains
Hull Trains operates services between London King's Cross and Hull or Beverley via Selby. London North Eastern Railway
London North Eastern Railway offers regular direct trains services to London King's Cross, Leeds, Harrogate, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow Central. Northern Trains
Northern Trains generally offers services from Doncaster to Sheffield, Leeds and Lincoln. TransPennine Express
TransPennine Express operates services eastbound to Cleethorpes, and westbound to Manchester Airport. TransPennine services operate hourly in each direction generally. There were plans to add platforms 9 and 10 to cope with Eurostar trains but this project was cancelled when it was decided that Eurostar would not serve Britain outside the South East of England.
In the media
In 1973 the station was featured in the first episode of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, entitled Strangers on a Train, featuring James Bolam and Rodney Bewes. Although it is not stated where the scenes in the station were filmed, signs for Grimsby Town and Scunthorpe are visible in the background.
