The station, situated 47 miles 40 chains (76.4 km) north-west of Leeds, serves the village of Horton-in-Ribblesdale in North Yorkshire, England.

Goods traffic was handled at the station until 1964, with sidings at the southern end serving the nearby Horton Quarry continuing in use until the early 1980s.

These were removed after the station signal box was decommissioned in 1986, but plans to reinstate them (as was done at nearby Arcow Quarry in 2016) have been approved and preliminary work to do so is under way (as of February 2024).

There is a proposal that the station receives a new footbridge (announced in March 2020), thanks to a £1.9 million scheme funded jointly by Network Rail and the government.

[9] However, the Yorkshire Dales National Park authority have objected to the proposal for a footbridge on the grounds that the design will impede on the conservation area, as the buildings that will house the lift shafts will be prominent above the station.