Newcastle Central Station, or simply Newcastle or Central Station, is the mainline railway station in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, England and is a principal stop on the East Coast Main Line. It opened in 1850 and is a Grade I listed building. The railway station is connected underground to the adjacent Central Station Metro station. Mainline services are operated by Cross Country south to Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Plymouth and Reading.
National Express East Coast operates south to York, Doncaster and London. Both of these companies also run services to Edinburgh and Glasgow. First Trans Pennine Express provides services to Manchester and Northern Rail operates local and regional services across the North East and Cumbria. The national and regional train operating companies that operate services to and from the station, in addition to platform signs and the National Rail umbrella service network, refer to the station simply as Newcastle, as there is no other mainline station serving Newcastle, unlike other major cities such as Cardiff or Glasgow.
Locally however, for example on the Tyne and Wear Metro system, the mainline railway station is known simply as Central Station], which is sometimes written as the proper noun Newcastle Central Station. The station has however never been called simply by the name Newcastle Central, either officially or colloquially. The station was designed by John Dobson for the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway company (which subsequently became the North Eastern Railway (NER) following a merger with other companies in 1854) and the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (which was later absorbed by NER in 1862).
It was constructed in collaboration with Robert Stephenson (also responsible for the High Level Bridge) between 1845 and 1850. The opening ceremony, attended by Queen Victoria, took place on 29 August 1850.
The building has a classical styled frontage, and its trainshed has a distinctive roof with three curved, arched spans the first example of its kind, which set the house style for the NER’s subsequent main stations, culminating in the very last major British example half a century later, the rebuilt and enlarged Hull Paragon in 1904. A portico, designed by Thomas Prosser, was added to the station entrance in 1863, and the trainshed was extended southwards in the 1890s with a new span designed by William Bell.The National Rail station has 12 platforms.
The arrangement is, Platform 1 is an east facing bay platform which handles terminating local services, and also some terminating long distance CrossCountry services from the South over the High Level Bridge. Newcastle is a key stop on the East Coast Main Line. Passenger services are operated by several companies: National Express East Coast trains run south to London King’s Cross via York, Doncaster and Peterborough; and north to Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central, Aberdeen and Inverness.
Cross Country services run south to their Birmingham New Street hub via York, Leeds/Doncaster and Derby and onwards to Bournemouth via Oxford and Reading; Plymouth, Penzance or Cardiff Central via Cheltenham Spa and Bristol Temple Meads; and north to Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central and Aberdeen. First TransPennine Express trains run to Manchester Airport and Liverpool Lime Street via York, Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester Piccadilly.
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