Station 'bottleneck' needs addressing, says mayor

Capacity constraints at the "bottleneck" Doncaster Railway Station must be addressed before a village north of the city can have a stop of its own, the mayor has said.

Frank Jackson, Reform UK councillor at City of Doncaster Council, said a new station at Askern would "deliver substantial economic and social benefits" to communities.

A previous station at Askern was closed in the 1980s, and Labour MP Ed Miliband has backed calls to open a new stop.

Doncaster Mayor Ros Jones said the priority would be for "considerable investment" in Doncaster Railway Station which needed "additional platforms".

Jones said that, although the council had made a "strategic acquisition" to secure land in Askern to the rear of the library on the western side of the line a few years ago, a business case for a new station "highlighted a number of challenges" that would require "significant funding".

She said: "Even once the capacity constraints were resolved on the East Coast Mainline, the next big obstacle would be to work with operators to encourage them to stop at a reopened Askern Station especially considering that Adwick station is less than a 10-minute drive away."

Jackson, a keen supporter of a new Askern station, pointed out that any families without cars could not get to Adwick Station, with online navigation tools estimating a walk of nearly 90 minutes, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Askern Town Council said the earlier station was on the former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway line between Doncaster and Wakefield Kirkgate.

The line was used mainly by goods services, and transported coal to Ferrybridge, Eggbrough and Drax power stations.

In May 2025 Doncaster North MP Miliband said re-establishing the train station would make a "huge difference to the lives and opportunities of residents" in Askern and its surrounding villages.

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