The railway was built to enable the construction of reservoirs in the Upper Nidd Valley by the Bradford Corporation.

[1] It was opened to traffic on 12 September 1907,[2] and had one main platform, with a second on the southern side, and even though a physical link existed between Pateley Bridge NVLR and the North Eastern Railway's (NER) Pateley Bridge station, passengers had to de-train and travel the short distance between the two (about 400 yards (370 m)).

[8][9] Two lines connected with the NER railway; one diverging off the incline up to Scotgate Ash Quarry, and the other leading to a three-road exchange yard.

[14][8] The station was closed in January 1930 as a result of falling passenger numbers; records show that over 63,000 people travelled on the line in 1923, which had dropped to 25,000 in the year before closure (1929).

In 1937, the agreement with the LNER (the successors to the NER) for the exchange of freight between the NVLR and the Nidd Valley Railway, was terminated.