Established in 2012 Bishop Trains operates the National Rail ticket office at Bishop Auckland Railway Station.
We offer a counter service for personal callers and a telephone booking service selling the full range of National Rail tickets, railcards and reservations.
We pride ourselves on finding the best value fares for any UK rail journey, and our team regularly beat the prices offered by online ticket sellers.
National Rail tickets, including bargain Advance fares
Railcards (Family, Senior, 16-25, Two Together)
Seat & sleeper reservations
Rail Rover & Ranger tickets
Rail-Sail tickets to Ireland, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands & Isle of Man
Book by phone on 01388-661394 (Mon-Sat 09:00-12:25 then 13:00-16:00)
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Bishop Trains opened the doors at 9am on Saturday 21st January 2012, initially as a model railway shop but with big plans to become a rail travel agent running alongside the model railway side of the business.
When we first opened we were situated in the building now occupied by our good friends, Caps Off, a building that many locals will remember as the Bishop Auckland Driving Test Centre.
Given that the local area was pretty much devoid of a dedicated model railway shop, pretty much straight away the business became busy with many regular customers and unlike most similar shops we opened 7 days a week including public holidays.
During this time work was taking place behind the scenes in planning the travel centre and discussions with Northern Rail were ongoing. In the meantime, we opened a much-needed waiting room for passengers using the station.
RAIL TRAVEL CENTRE OPENS FOR BUSINESS
On 12th February 2013 the dream became a reality and the rail travel centre opened for service.
Our original thoughts were that the travel centre side of the business would be the minor part of the business, however we quickly found this to be the opposite with the level of interest far exceeding what we expected with sales increasing year-on-year since that date, quite an achievement given the ever present risk from online sales channels and more recently, self-service ticket machines!
At the time the new travel centre opened we were operating the longest hours of any model railway shop in the UK, open 7 days a week, opening at 0630 and closing 1810 most days. This allowed us to be open for the bulk of the train departures.
Additional services were added to the travel centre, including Superbreak Mini Breaks, local coach operators and attractions. It was not long before we introduced International rail travel to the travel centre, making us (we believe) the only National Rail travel centre in the UK that sold International tickets, however recently we ceased to offer International tickets due to the relatively low number of sales, allowing us to focus on the domestic rail market, our core function.
In addition to operating the travel centre and looking after the station on behalf of Northern, Bishop Trains also agreed to become Station Adopters for Bishop Auckland station and North Road station in Darlington, as part of this we help make the stations a more welcoming environment with general tidying and cleaning, maintenance of floral displays and promotion of the facilities. We are supported in this task by our ever-dependable Railway Youth Team (more below).
THE DAY THE PRINCE DROPPED IN
On 23rd July 2012 Bishop Auckland station was the arrival and departure point of HRH the Prince of Wales on his first ever visit to the town, arriving by Royal Train, hauled by celebrity steam locomotive Tornado.
The Prince was visiting Auckland Castle to see the Zurbaran collection of 17th Century religious paintings and during his time at the station took time to speak to members of the public that were there welcoming him to the town.
Some of the Bishop Trains team were invited to briefly board the Royal Train whilst it was at Bishop Auckland.
EXCURSION TRAINS
In addition to providing the travel centre we also wanted to bring something special to the town, something that was new and would appeal to a wide cross-section of our community, from these thoughts our excursion trains idea was born and on Saturday 19th November 2016 we operated our first ever excursion train, named the “Festive Capital Express”.
The FCE operated from Bishop Auckland direct to London Kings Cross and was the first direct train to London from the town for over 50 years. The train was a sell-out and 450 passengers joined us for a festive trip to London, complete with carol singers, gifts for the children, mince pies, elves and of course Santa. Since then we have operated 2 further festive trains, one to Edinburgh (in 2017 complete with bagpipes) and another to London (in 2018).
During 2018 and 2019 we introduced special themed trains on the Weardale Railway heritage line which runs from Bishop Auckland through the picturesque Wear Valley to Stanhope. Beer & Gin trains, a Wine & Cheese train and a Fish & Chips train ran, all proving to be extremely popular and most were sold out.
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak we have unfortunately had to cancel our special trains for this year, however, we hope to operate these trains again in 2021.
NEW TRAVEL CENTRE OPENS
On Thursday 24th November 2016 Bishop Trains moved into a new Travel Centre situated in the main station building.
Following investment by Durham County Council the improved station building included a much-needed passenger waiting room and office space now occupied by Bishop Trains.
The new Travel Centre in the heart of the station is much better located bringing many customer service and security benefits. As part of the deal, Bishop Trains agreed to look after the waiting room on behalf of Northern Rail and increased the seating capacity for passengers and provided customer information screens.
The move to the new Travel Centre did pose one conundrum, how to accommodate the model railway shop. The floor space of the new Travel Centre was significantly smaller than the old shop, so fitting everything in was going to be a major challenge, therefore a difficult decision had to be taken and, as a result, the model railway shop closed.
It was decided that the new Travel Centre would focus on travel products only, but we did continue with drinks, snacks, and sweets, for the hungry traveller!
Saturday 10th December 2016 was a proud day for everyone at Bishop Auckland station when Sue Snowdon the Lord Lieutenant of County Durham, officially opened the new Travel Centre. As well as cutting the ribbon, Mrs Snowdon took time to speak with staff and members of the Youth Team.
RAILWAY YOUTH TEAM
No review of Bishop Auckland station would be complete without mention of our ever-dependable Railway Youth Team.
Created in 2007 at Stanhope station on the Weardale Railway, the Youth Team is now based at Bishop Auckland station and it must be said that a great deal of our achievements would not have been possible without the support of the YT members.
So why was the group formed? The background to this goes back to 1986 when the owner of Bishop Trains joined the British Rail Youth Training Scheme as a very keen to learn 16-year-old. The BR YTS scheme was a fantastic way for young people to sample the rail industry and gain valuable skills and experience leading to many trainees gaining full-time employment within the industry. A fair number of these are still on the railway today.
Once the BR YTS scheme ended there was a massive gap for young people thinking about joining the industry, so to address this, albeit in a small way, the Railway Youth Team was formed.
When the team was formed back in 2007 with 4 members, it was decided to base the scheme largely on the British Rail YTS idea with regular formal training and work experience opportunities, but also with a social element as a way of helping to build the team.
Over the last 13 years around 200 young people have benefited from Youth Team membership, today we have 30 active members aged from 10 to 16.
So what do the Youth Team actually do? Many of our regular passengers will without a doubt have seen the YT members working at the station, issuing tickets, assisting passengers, tending the floral displays and many other tasks, even playing the station piano!, but in addition to this they attend a formal training night every 2 weeks giving them the technical railway knowledge that they need. From a social side, we have many trips away throughout the year, all new members have a teambuilding trip to London, other day trips include Glasgow, Blackpool, York, heritage railways around the UK, railway depot open days, Paris… yes you read that correctly, Paris!
An important part of what the Youth Team does is charity fundraising with the most notable achievement being their support of the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal over the last 6 years, collecting on trains from Bishop Auckland along the Bishop Line and raising nearly £14,000.
One of the main aims of the Youth Team is to prepare members for the world of work, the skills and experiences gained as members is particularly useful for inclusion on CVs.
We are extremely proud to that over the last 12 months, 7 members have now joined the paid staff at Bishop Auckland station in full-time or part-time positions, a fantastic achievement which is a result of their hard work and commitment.
More details about the Youth Team can be found at www.sdryt.org.uk
ANNUAL COMMUNITY EVENT
An important day in the Bishop Trains calendar is the annual Community Station Event which, except for this year, takes place during the Summer.
Our first event was in 2015 and is now a Bishop Trains tradition and is our way of bringing together all that is good in our community. Event attendance has increased year-on-year, to the extent that for the last couple of events we have extended into the B&Q car park.
We would like to thank all the organisations that have supported this event over the past 5 years and look forward to our next event in 2021, and our 10th anniversary event in 2022!
We hope you have enjoyed our memories of the last 8 years serving the community and look forward to serving you again once the current situation is resolved.
