In 1842 the Leeds and Thirsk Railway Company surveyed a proposed route from Leeds to Harrogate, Ripon and Thirsk and presented a bill to Parliament which was passed on 21 July 1844. This liune entered Harrogate from Pannal, traversing Crimple Valley via the low viaduct before crossing Wetherby Road and curving round towards Starbeck and then on to Ripon and Thirsk. Plans to bring the line into central Harrogate failed because a public meeting on 22 November in the Queen Hotel vetoed the idea.
The York and North Midland Railway Company proposed a branch from Church Fenton via Wetherby and Spofforth with a terminus at Brunswick Station, diagonally opposite the Brunswick Hotel (now the Prince of Wales Mansions) which opened in July 1848. The line from Spofforth ran through the Prospect tunnel and across Crimple Valley via a great viaduct, through a further tunnel beneath Langcliffe Avenue to the Brunswick Station on the site of what is now Trinity Church Stray.
The increased flow of visitors and the development of commuting launched Harrogate into an upward spiral of economic growth. The hotels were enlarged, and new ones built. New baths and other facilities were provided for the visitors. The growth of the permanent population hastened its transformation from the two separate villages of High and Low Harrogate which fell asleep in the winter to a mature, full time urban community.
Image: Crimple Valley railways