Services
The station is managed by East Coast, whose services run south from platform 1 to Doncaster, Newark Northgate, Grantham, Retford, Peterborough, Stevenage and London Kings Cross and north from platform 2 to Outwood, Leeds and further north to York, Newcastle and Scotland operated by CrossCountry.
There is generally a half-hourly service from Wakefield to London which takes approximately just over 2 hours for the 175 miles (282 km) journey. The service is well used by people from the Wakefield district for travel to the capital.
The station is also served by CrossCountry, Northern Rail and East Midlands Trains. CrossCountry operate train services to Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow to the north and services to Birmingham, Bournemouth and the South West of England. There is an hourly service in each direction.
Northern Rail operate services north to Leeds and south to Doncaster and Sheffield as part of the Wakefield Line and services to Selby via Wakefield Kirkgate, Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford Interchange and Leeds. During evenings, there are also trains as part of the Pontefract Line towards Knottingley which go via Wakefield Kirkgate.
East Midlands Trains services from Leeds to London St Pancras International via either Derby or Nottingham call at Wakefield Westgate. However there are only up to three departures per day (all early morning) from Leeds and up to four late afternoon/evening return trips from St Pancras. This is principally because the main maintenance depot for the former Midland Mainline HST power cars is the Maintrain depot at Neville Hill in Leeds. This provides a limited but useful service between West Yorkshire and the East Midlands. The former operator Midland Mainline had serious plans for a regular service between St Pancras and Leeds via the Erewash Valley and Leicester but these were rejected by the (then) Strategic Rail Authority. These services are however useful for people making trips to places such as Bedford and Luton for business or leisure.
Read more about this topic: Wakefield Westgate Railway Station
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