[1] Its southern side was built for the Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds Railway (GNR) on part of the private estate belonging to wealthy cloth merchant John Milnes and his mid-18th century mansion was partially demolished and its remains were incorporated into the station.

The rebuilt station was "aesthetically inferior to its earlier incarnation, soon proved to be too cramped to cope with a rise in passenger numbers".

[1] In early 2007 Network Rail announced that a £1.4 million redevelopment scheme was planned for the station to take place by the end of 2009.

[6] The scheme involved constructing offices, leisure, small-scale retail, hotel, restaurants and housing on the site of an old dairy and disused railway goods yards.

[1] Key aims of the project were nearly doubling station's retail facilities, an improved forecourt area, station management centre, staff offices, a customer information point, a first class waiting room and standard class waiting facilities and the installation of new passenger information technologies and automated ticket barriers to reduce fare evasion.

[1] Few elements of the modernisation programme interfered with the operational railway except for the installation of additional canopies and the replacement footbridge.

The programme was an element of the third phase of Merchant Gate redevelopment scheme and promoted by its backers as being a key part of the area's renewal.

[9] Network Rail was appointed by East Coast as the principal contractor for the programme and the Buckingham Group was the design-and-build subcontractor.

[1][10] Designed by Carey Jones Chapman Tolcher and RICS 2015 Awards shortlisted, Pro Yorkshire, Best Infrastracture[11].

Northern Trains operate stopping services between Leeds and Doncaster, calling every hour on weekdays and Saturdays.

Two evening northbound and two morning southbound services operated primarily to cycle InterCity 125 sets through Neville Hill TMD.

[19] Between 1988 and 2009, a modern art sculpture, titled 'A Light Wave', created by the Leeds-based artist Charles Quick, was located on the wall behind the old bay platform on the northbound side of the station.

The installation comprised a series of wooden planks laid up against a wall, in the form of waves, and illuminated from behind by a succession of lamps.