Redcar Central railway station


Redcar Central railway station serves the town of Redcar in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is located on the Tees Valley line east of and operated by Northern Trains who provide train services along with TransPennine Express.
Redcar Central has a staffed ticket office, open Monday to Saturday but not on Sunday. A self-service ticket machine is available for use outside these hours or for collecting pre-paid tickets. There is also a waiting room that is open Monday to Saturday - these are both on the southern side. Platform 2 has a shelter, timetable poster boards and bench seating.
Platform 1 is further west than platform 2 and there is a bridge over the track which connects the two. There is a level crossing over one of the major roads into Redcar at the end of platform 1 which can also be used to cross over the track. Nearby is the Redcar Station business park which houses a few local business units, contained within the old train shed.
Station facilities here were improved in 2013. The package for this station included improved platform lighting, renewed station signage, digital information screens and the installation of CCTV. The long-line Public Address system has been renewed and upgraded with pre-recorded train announcements. Step-free access is available to both sides.

History

The line into the town from the west was opened as the Middlesbrough & Redcar Railway on 4 June 1846. The company that constructed it was nominally independent, but in reality was backed financially by the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Great North of England Railway. The S&D had formally taken over by the time an extension eastwards to Saltburn was completed in August 1861 - this diverged from the original line just short of the existing terminus and so a new through station had to be constructed. This was built in a similar style to that used by G T Andrews elsewhere on the NER, with an impressive frontage and overall roof. However it also had only a single platform, which led to congestion and delays during the summer months when traffic levels were at their heaviest. A second platform outside the train shed was eventually provided for westbound services by the LNER in 1935. Today the original train shed is no longer used, a replacement eastbound platform having been constructed alongside it at the end of the 1980s.
The level crossing here utilised motorised wooden boom gates that swung out across the road for many years, but these latterly became increasingly unreliable and prone to failure in high winds. Infrastructure operator Network Rail replaced them in 2015 with telescopic metal ones - a design unique to this particular location.

Services

Northern Trains

There is a half-hourly service each way from the station. Westbound services continue to and . Eastbound services continue to. Outside of this usual pattern there are also two early morning through services to via and along with one morning arrival from which comes via Newcastle and. On Sundays the service starts later and there is an hourly service to Saltburn, Middlesbrough, Darlington and Bishop Auckland.

TransPennine Express

In December 2019, TransPennine Express extended its hourly Manchester Airport to Middlesbrough service one station further to Redcar Central. At present the service is run using Class 185 trains; new Class 68 and Mark 5A sets were introduced in early 2020.
The majority of TransPennine Express services go to Manchester Airport with one evening service per day terminating at Manchester Victoria, the final four services each day terminating at York. All TPE services run via Northallerton and Yarm, with the exception of one early morning arrival which travels via Darlington.