Birmingham

Leeds

Introduction

Leeds Station is a main railway station serving Leeds city centre in West Yorkshire, England. As of 2016, this station is the third busiest station outside the London area. The station is located at the new station street south of the city square, at the back of the park road, behind the landmark Queens Hotel. The station is one of the 19 stations managed by the British National Railways.

Leeds is an important hub in the UK rail network. This station is the terminus of the East Coast main line Leeds branch line, providing high-speed intercity rail service to London. It is also an important stopover between the Scottish, Central and South West England railway lines connecting Birmingham and Glasgow. Major cities such as Edinburgh, Beatby, Nottingham, Redding, Bristol, Axal, Plymouth, Penzance. The station also offers regular intercity rail services to major cities in North England including Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield. In addition, this station is also the terminus of the beautiful Settle-Carlisle Railway. Future stations will be expanded to connect to the No. 2 high-speed railway under construction.

Leeds is a local and regional railway hub in the Yorkshire region, connecting major cities such as York, Scarborough, Houcheng, Doncaster and Sheffield. This station is the center of the West Yorkshire Metro commuter rail system, providing rail services to Baraford, Wakefield, Desbury, Huddersfield and Halifax.

With a passenger volume of approximately 23 million passengers between April 2014 and March 2015, it is the busiest station in North England and the third busiest station outside London, second only to Birmingham New Street and Central Glasgow. .

Platform

Station 1 -6: This part of the station is the terminal and therefore at the same height as the main hall, although stations 3 and 4 are far from the ticket gate. The "C" portion of these platforms is closest to the lobby, but Part A is furthest from the ticket gate.

These five northern trains usually use this part of the station: (1) Round-trip Bradford, including trains from Bradford to Manchester via the Hebden Bridge (2) Wharfedale train to and from Ilkley (3) Express trains to and from Skipton via Keighley & Worth Valley Railway and Saltaire to Saltaire Mills (4) Harrogate Line Train (5) Trains to Carlisle along the spectacular routes of Hellifield and Settle (6) Trains to Lancaster via Hellifield and Carnforth

Stations 7 and 8: The platform 8 is on the right side of the ticket gate line, and the platform 7 next to the main hall is at its far end, so that the trains using these stations are accessible. LNER trains to and from London usually use platform 8.

Platform 9 -17: The main feature of the Leeds station is a huge bridge that connects these platforms to the ticket gate through the main hall.

The hall and each platform are connected to the bridge via escalators and lifts (elevators) and there are stairs.

Long-distance trains using these platforms include: (i) Cross-country trains to multiple destinations including Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, Edinburgh, Durham, Newcastle. Sheffield and York (ii) Trans Pennine Express trains can reach multiple destinations including Durham, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Scarborough and York.

Birmingham ( BUR-ming-əm, locally also BUR-min-əm) is a major city in the West Midlands, England and is the second-largest city and metropolitan area in England and the United Kingdom, with roughly 1.1 million inhabitants within the city area and 3.8 million inhabitants within the metropolitan area. This also makes Birmingham the 17th largest city and 8th largest metropolitan area in the European Union. Birmingham is commonly referred to as the nation's "second city".Located in the West Midlands county and region in England, approximately 100 miles from central London, Birmingham, as one of the United Kingdom's major cities, is considered to be the social, cultural, financial, and commercial centre of both the East and West Midlands. Distinctively, Birmingham does not have a natural river flowing through any part of the city – one of the closest rivers is the Severn, approximately 20 miles west of the city centre. Birmingham's urban area is the third-largest in the United Kingdom, with its most recently estimated population in 2017 being 2,897,303, and it also lies within the most populated English district. A market town in the medieval period, Birmingham grew in the 18th-century Midlands Enlightenment and subsequent Industrial Revolution, which saw advances in science, technology, and economic development, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society. By 1791 it was being hailed as "the first manufacturing town in the world". Birmingham's distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation and provided an economic base for prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century. The Watt steam engine was invented in Birmingham.The resulting high level of social mobility also fostered a culture of political radicalism which, under leaders from Thomas Attwood to Joseph Chamberlain, was to give it a political influence unparalleled in Britain outside London, and a pivotal role in the development of British democracy. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the city's infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive urban regeneration in subsequent decades. Birmingham's economy is now dominated by the service sector. The city is a major international commercial centre, ranked as a beta- world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network the joint highest ranking with Edinburgh and Manchester of all British cities outside of London; and an important transport, retail, events and conference hub. Its metropolitan economy is the second largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121.1bn (2014), and its six universities make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham's major cultural institutions – the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Library of Birmingham and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts – enjoy international reputations, and the city has vibrant and influential grassroots art, music, literary and culinary scenes. The city will host the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Birmingham is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors.People from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the city's nickname of "Brum", which originates from the city's old name, Brummagem, which in turn is thought to have derived from "Bromwich-ham". The Brummie accent and dialect are particularly distinctive.

Leeds is a city in the United Kingdom, located in the county of West Yorkshire in Northern England, approximately 170 miles north of central London. Leeds has one of the most diverse economies of all the UK's main employment centres and has seen the fastest rate of private-sector jobs growth of any UK city. It also has the highest ratio of private to public sector jobs of all the UK's Core Cities, with 77% of its workforce working in the private sector. Leeds has the third-largest jobs total by local authority area, with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015. Leeds is ranked as a High Sufficiency level city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial heart of the West Yorkshire Urban Area. Leeds is served by five universities, and has the fourth largest student population in the country and the country's fourth largest urban economy.Leeds was a small manorial borough in the 13th century, and in the 17th and 18th centuries it became a major centre for the production and trading of wool, and in the Industrial Revolution a major mill town; wool was still the dominant industry, but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing, and other industries were also important. From being a market town in the valley of the River Aire in the 16th century, Leeds expanded and absorbed the surrounding villages to become a populous urban centre by the mid-20th century. It now lies within the West Yorkshire Urban Area, the United Kingdom's fourth-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.6 million.Today, Leeds has become the largest legal and financial centre outside London with the financial and insurance services industry worth £13 billion to the city's economy. The finance and business service sector account for 38% of total output with more than 30 national and international banks located in the city, including an office of the Bank of England. Leeds is also the UK's third-largest manufacturing centre with around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, Leeds manufacturing firms account for 8.8% of total employment in the city and is worth over £7 billion to the local economy. The largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology. Other key sectors include retail, leisure and the visitor economy, construction, and the creative and digital industries. The city saw several firsts, including the oldest-surviving film in existence, Roundhay Garden Scene (1888), and the 1767 invention of soda water.Public transport, rail and road communications networks in the region are focused on Leeds, and the second phase of High Speed 2 will connect it to London via East Midlands Hub and Sheffield Meadowhall. Leeds currently has the third busiest railway station and the tenth busiest airport outside London.