The
Bishop Auckland & Weardale Railway (BA&WR) passed through the future site of the station upon its opening between and in November 1843 and was extended to by the WXR in 1845. In 1862, the line to Frosterley was extended to by the
Frosterley & Stanhope Railway and was once again extended on 21 October 1895 by the
North Eastern Railway between Stanhope and . The station was closed to both passengers and goods traffic on 8 July 1935 though passenger and goods train continued to pass through on both lines for many years: After major efforts to clear the line of vegetation and repair damaged tracks, passenger services along the section between Stanhope and Bishop Auckland through Wear Valley Junction were reintroduced 23 May 2010 and continued until the end of the 2012 season. Over this period, trains ran non-stop between Wolsingham and Bishop Auckland. Since 2014, the Railway Trust has operated passenger trains on selected weekdays and weekends for mostly tourist traffic using a
class 122 "Bubble Car". Initially, this only ran between Wolsingham and Stanhope but, on 27 March 2016, this service was extended to Witton-le-Wear. In April 2018, the Weardale Railway CIC announced that works had commenced to lift a short section of track at Broken Banks (approximately 1/2 mile west of Bishop Auckland) to enable the embankment to be repaired after subsidence had made the line unusable for passenger traffic. Once the works are complete it is intended to reinstate the tracks and extend the Stanhope to Witton-le-Wear passenger service back to Bishop Auckland West station from July 2018 there still do not currently appear to be any plans to reopen Wear Valley Junction. == References ==