Today sees the announcement of the shortlist for the top 20 railway stations in the UK and Ribblehead had made the cut!

2025 is an extraordinary year for the railway as it is the 200^th Anniversary of the first paid passenger journey by train. To celebrate the ‘World Cup of Stations’ is trying to find the most remarkable station in Britain that has changed lives in some way.

The station opened as Batty Green in December 1876 but by May 1877 it had become Ribblehead. It has witnessed some incredible times through history, serving as a place of worship for the remote rural communities with monthly services delivered by the Vicar from Ingleton and using a harmonium partially hidden behind a billboard!

The station also served as a meteorological monitoring site with the stationmaster submitting coded weather reports to the Air Ministry!

In May 1970 the station was closed as part of cutbacks and service rationalisation. This could definitely have been the beginning of the end as further moves were then made to close the line altogether in the 1980s. Step forward the most tenacious and committed group of supporters – who became the ‘Friends’ of the Settle-Carlisle Line. With petitions, legal backing, technical know how and excellence and even a paw print they campaigned successfully to save the line and as part of this Ribblehead was re-opened in July 1986.

The Station building was in a terrible condition and following the saving of the line and a commitment to form a charity called the Settle-Carlisle Railway Trust, dedicated to saving and restoring the buildings along the line, it became their first project.

In 2000 the building was fully restored and transformed to house a Visitor Centre which tells the story of this remarkable place and a Tearoom, run purely by volunteers from the ‘Friends’ which offers a warm welcome and much needed hospitality. A roaring fire helps fend off the elements against which the station still battles almost daily and homemade cake brings people together to share a story and make memories.

The volunteers themselves travel substantial distances to fill their shifts because they simply love it there and without them it wouldn’t be possible. Team Leader Janet Benzie told us:  ‘It’s a very special place, where you get to meet really interesting people from all over the world and everyone has a story to tell why they’ve come. It gives me something to get out of bed for in a morning and I look forward to it every week. I miss it in the winter although I don’t miss the weather!!’The visitors book echoes this sentiment with comments from Dutch, Australian, American, Chinese, German and Spanish travellers interspersed with people all across the UK. Some come every year, some have never been before but all agree it’s a truly unique place that deserves to be recognised as the best station in 2025 and beyond!

If you would like to vote to help Ribblehead take the trophy in the World Cup of Stations you can visit: World Cup of Stations

Voting is only open from Monday 13^th to Friday 17^th October

More importantly visit the Station, you won’t be disappointed!