Hull Paragon Interchange

Transport interchange in Yorkshire, England

Hull Paragon Interchange is a transport interchange providing rail, bus and coach services located in the city centre of Kingston upon Hull, England. The G. T. Andrews designed station was originally named Paragon Station, and together with the adjoining Station Hotel, it opened in 1847 as the new Hull terminus for the growing traffic of the York and North Midland (Y&NMR) leased to the Hull and Selby Railway (H&S). As well as trains to the west, the station was the terminus of the Y&NMR and H&S railway's Hull to Scarborough Line. From the 1860s the station also became the terminus of the Hull and Holderness and Hull and Hornsea railways. At the beginning of the 20th century the North Eastern Railway (NER) expanded the trainshed and station to the designs of William Bell, installing the present five arched span platform roof. In 1962 a modernist office block Paragon House was installed above the station main entrance, replacing a 1900s iron canopy; the offices were initially used as regional headquarters for British Rail. A bus station was erected adjacent to the north of the station in the mid 1930s. In the early 2000s plans for an integrated bus and rail station were made, as part of a larger development including a shopping centre; St Stephen's shopping centre, a hotel, housing, and music and theatre facilities. The new station, named "Paragon Interchange" opened in September 2007, integrating the city's railway and bus stations under William Bell's 1900s trainshed. The station is currently operated by TransPennine Express, which provides train services along with Northern Trains, Hull Trains and London North Eastern Railway.

In 1840 the Hull and Selby Railway opened the first railway line into Hull, terminating at a passenger and goods terminal, Manor House Street station, adjacent to the Humber Dock, near the old town. Subsequently, the Hull and Selby Railway entered into working arrangements with the Manchester and Leeds Railway and then the York and North Midland Railway. In 1845 an Act of Parliament enabled the York and North Midland and/or the Manchester and Leeds to take a lease of the company with an option to buy the line at a later date – only the York and North Midland was subsequently active. In 1846 the Hull and Selby completed its Bridlington branch which connected from a junction at Dairycoates near Hull to a line the York and North Midland was building from Bridlington to Seamer, connecting to its York to Scarborough Line, forming a railway route from Hull to Scarborough on the east coast.

From 1924 passenger trains running from the Hull and Barnsley Line became able to run into Paragon station with the construction of a connecting chord between the NER and H&BR networks in north west Hull. On 14 February 1927 it was the site of a head on train collision (see Hull Paragon rail accident) in which 12 passengers were killed and 24 seriously injured, caused by a signalling error. In 1931–32 the hotel was internally revamped, and expanded by the addition of an extra storey of rooms on the roof, replacing staff bedrooms; and by cement rendered wing on either side of the main entrance; an art deco entrance onto the station concourse was also added. A railway museum was established by Hull Museums director Thomas Sheppard in the station in 1933. In 1935 the decision was made to resignal the station and approaches, replacing the 1904 electro pneutmatic power signalling system with an electrically operated system. "Park Street" and "Paragon station" signal boxes were to be replaced with a single box; the running lines out of the station, including those controlled by the West Parade signal box, Power supply was from the Hull Corporation at 400 V 50 Hz three phase, with a backup generator powered by a Petter oil engine. The main external system was electrified at 110 V AC, with shunt signals at 100 or 55 V AC; the point motors, previously electro pneumatically operated were retained, with a per hour max. pressure compressor system, duplicated for redundancy. Signalling was electric lamp backlit. The Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company Ltd was the main supplier of the equipment. A new signal box was installed,

During the Hull Blitz of 1941 the station received direct hits on the night of 7 May, with many incendiary bombs hitting the roof. The signal box was badly damaged when a parachute mine exploded nearby during the same night the station's small railway museum was destroyed by fire. In 1965 the Newington branch which had been used by trains running from west of Hull to Bridlington and beyond was closed and replaced by a new chord near Victoria crossing. the interior was rebuilt and the hotel re opened in 1992. In 2000 outline planning permission was given for a transport interchange and shopping and leisure complex near Ferensway, Hull; in 2001 full planning documents were submitted for works on a site included a new shopping arcade development incorporating a hotel and car parking facilities; a transport interchange incorporating the station; as well as landscaping, setting out of streets, a petrol station and a housing development. The development also included new facilities for the Hull Truck Theatre and the Albemarle Music Centre. The shopping development is known as St Stephen's shopping centre. Features of the railway 2007 station redevelopment include a new canopy to the Ferensway entrance; From 2009 a mobility scooter hire service was provided at the station. The interior of the booking office is used (2011) as a branch of WH Smith. A £65,000 bronze statue of Hull resident poet Philip Larkin by Martin Jennings was unveiled on the concourse of Hull Paragon Interchange on 2 December 2010, marking the 25th anniversary of the poet's death. The statue was located near to the entrance to the Station Hotel, a favoured watering place of the poet. In 2011, an additional five slate roundels containing inscriptions of Larkin's poems were installed in the floor around the statue; and in 2012 a memorial bench was installed around a pillar near the statue. In February 2017 a full size model of the Gipsy Moth aircraft used by Amy Johnson to fly solo from Britain to Australia, created over a six month period by inmates of Hull Prison, was put on display at the station. This remained throughout the City of Culture but moved to the adjacent St Stephen's shopping centre in March 2018. The station underwent a revamp during 2017, with a £1.4 million investment providing a new waiting area and more retail units. In August 2023, a planning application was made by Network Rail to bring Platform 1 back in to use.

A bus station was built adjacent to Paragon station in 1935, at a cost of £55,000 on land freed by slum clearance. A new bus station integrated with the main railway station was developed and constructed in the first decade of the 21st century. (see also §Paragon station post privatisation.) Hull Paragon Interchange opened on Sunday 16 September 2007 combining rail and bus station services on a single site. The bus terminal has 38 bus and 4 coach stands, replacing a separate 'island' bus station; the site of the former Hull Bus Station, adjacent to the north of the railway station now forms part of the St Stephen's shopping centre. The bus ranks are located at the north of the station, in a "saw tooth" arrangement. The entrance to the station is from Ferensway, and a reversing roundabout was provided at the west end of the station. The station has approximately 1,700 bus departures per day (September 2010).

Hull Paragon is managed by TransPennine Express, serving mainly its North TransPennine route and several Northern Trains routes. Additional services are provided by Hull Trains and London North Eastern Railway. TransPennine Express operates a Monday Saturday service of one train per hour to and from Liverpool Lime Street via and Direct services to and from Manchester are less frequent after 7 pm. In May 2017, a later direct service to was introduced. On Sunday, a similar service runs at the reduced frequency of approximately every one to two hours; services start later and finish earlier, with no direct service to All services are operated by Class 185 Desiros. Northern Trains' weekday service consists of two trains per hour from Hull to , made up of one semi fast service and one stopping service, with one service per hour continuing through to Northern also operates one fast service per hour to via plus a second local stopping train each hour to and hourly to both and via Leeds. At peak times, there are additional services between Hull and Beverley, calling at Cottingham. Weekend running is similar, but with reduced frequencies on some routes and all services finishing earlier. Most fast services from Sheffield call at Hull before continuing to Scarborough, although some timetables show these services as separate rather than continuous. All services are typically operated by a mixture of Class 150 Sprinters, Class 155 Sprinters, Class 158 Express Sprinters and Class 170 Turbostars. Hull Trains operates a weekday service of seven trains in each direction to At weekends, this service is reduced with 6 trains on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. However, Sunday services were increased to 6 trains in each direction from December 2017. Every day, one train to London starts at Beverley progressing to Hull in the early morning, with one late night train from London terminating at Beverley after Hull. Each service is operated by a Class 800 Azuma.

Platform 1 – A bay platform. Returned to use in the spring of 2024 after extensive work. Northern services only, for trains of up to 3 carriages. Platform 2 – Northern Trains services on routes to Sheffield from Bridlington or Scarborough or services from York terminating here. Platform 3 – TransPennine Express services terminating from Liverpool Lime Street along with Platform 4. Platform 4 – TransPennine Express services from Liverpool Lime Street. Platform 5 – Northern Trains services terminating from Doncaster and also occasionally used for services from York when platform 2 is in use. Platform 6 – Northern Trains services from Beverley or services terminating here from Sheffield. Platform 7 – Hull Trains services from/to London King's Cross/Beverley and Northern services from/to Bridlington/Scarborough terminating or from Doncaster/Sheffield. This platform is also used by London North Eastern Railway's limited service to and from King's Cross, with the platform being just about long enough to accommodate a 9 car Azuma.

The railway station is commonly known as Paragon Station, Hull Paragon or just Hull Station; National Rail refers to the station as Hull (HUL). The name originates from nearby Paragon Street, which was itself built in c. 1802;the name dates back earlier. The Paragon Hotel public house, now the Hull Cheese, gave its name to the street and dates back as far as 1700. The station was opened as Hull Paragon Street on 8 May 1848 by the York and North Midland Railway; the North Eastern Railway used the name Hull Paragon, however, the Paragon suffix was used inconsistently over ninety years from its opening to 1948. Since the British Railways period, which commenced in 1948, the official name has been Hull, which excludes the Paragon suffix.#tag:ref|Since the closure of Cannon Street to passengers in 1924, the station was the only consistently timetabled rail terminus in the city. Since redevelopment in 2007, the official name has been Paragon Interchange; however, as of 2012, timetables continued to use Hull, except when referring to bus services.

The station has been used as a filming location in the film Clockwise, in an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot "The Plymouth Express" and in the comedy Only Fools and Horses episode "To Hull and Back".