Durham railway station
Durham is a railway station on the East Coast Main Line, which runs between and . The station, situated south of Newcastle, serves the cathedral city of Durham in County Durham, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by London North Eastern Railway. It is managed and served frequently by London North Eastern Railway (as a stop on the East Coast Main Line). It is also served by CrossCountry, TransPennine Express and Northern trains. Durham is a through station with two platforms, located north of the city centre, on a hill. South of the station, the  railway line is elevated on a viaduct. After a renovation between 2006 and 2008, the original stone station building is now the ticket hall. History. The city of Durham has been served by four stations, only one of which survives today: On grouping in 1923, the stations came under the control of the London and North Eastern Railway. Passenger services to Bishop Auckland and Sunderland via Penshaw were withdrawn by British Railways under the Beeching cuts, on 4 May 1964. The East Coast Main Line through Durham was electrified in 1991. Current facilities. Today, the station is owned by Network  Rail and managed by London North Eastern Railway (LNER). It was refurbished between 2006 and 2008 by the operator Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) and later National Express East Coast (NXEC), which included a new passenger lounge, toilets, travel centre, glazed waiting area, lifts and shops. The entrance and ticket hall were moved from the "temporary" 1960s building into the original stone building following renovation and repairs. The works were completed in early 2008 and the newly renovated station won "Best Medium Station" and "Overall Station of the Year" at the 2008 National Rail Awards. Ticket barriers were installed in  2009. After winning the intercity east coast rail franchise, former operator Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) opened an information office on platform 2, added new benches and perch seating and installed Wi-Fi connection. In 2017, all ticket barriers were removed as part of Virgin Trains East Coast's (VTEC) franchise commitment. A Brompton Bicycle hire scheme was planned to open in 2018 - however since the demise of Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) the management of the station has since passed on to London North Eastern Railway (LNER). Durham County Council, working with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, have  completed a project to improve cycle routes and pedestrian access to the station from the north of the city. This involved the construction of a new cycle path as well as upgrades to road crossings on Framwellgate path. In order to accommodate the new London North Eastern Railway Class 800 and 801 "Azuma "trains that entered service in mid 2019, platform 1 was extended north to a total length of 230 metres. Services. Train services are provided by four companies: London North Eastern Railway (LNER), CrossCountry, TransPennine Express and Northern Trains. LNER serves Durham with one train per hour each  way, southbound to via Darlington, , and , and northbound to via . Some northbound services are extended beyond Edinburgh, with one service per day to both (via ) and , as well as one daily train to (via Newcastle) instead of Edinburgh. There is also one southbound train per day to (via York) instead of London. CrossCountry operates services on the Cross Country Route. Northbound, the company runs two trains per hour to , of which one continues through to and one train every two hours is extended even further, to . There are also two daily services that continue beyond Edinburgh to Dundee, of which  one is further extended to Aberdeen. Southbound, there are two trains per hour to via , /, and ; of these, one train per hour continues to via and , and one continues to via , with two-hourly further extensions to . A few trains per day continue beyond Plymouth to , or beyond Reading to . TransPennine Express serves the station with two trains an hour each way. In the northbound direction, trains run to and one train per hour is extended to . Southbound, trains generally run to via , and ; of the two hourly services, one continues to (via ) and one runs further to . Northern Trains ' services at Durham are less frequent, with just three morning trains every weekday north to Newcastle (of which two run through to via ) and one evening train per day south to .