Historic Ilkley Station is on track for a £1 million new look with plans to build a modern ticket office and waiting room.

Northern Rail and Network Rail have drawn up plans for a ticket hall, office, staff facilities, heated waiting room and shelter on the platform at the Victorian rail terminus.

Consultations took place with Bradford Council, Ilkley Civic Society and passenger transport executive Metro last year.

Train operator Northern Rail has now applied for permission to build at the Grade II Listed station.

Liverpool-based architects firm Owen Ellis said: “The proposals will provide Ilkley station with the facilities it so desperately needs, by providing flexible and functional spaces to accommodate increasing passenger numbers. It will also be a visually stimulating addition to the station building.”

The firm said the ticket office would be a “forward looking addition” to the period features.

The station was opened in 1865 by Otley and Ilkley Joint Railway. The Wharfedale line was later extended to Addingham and Skipton with a rail bridge across the town centre. The line extension closed in the 1960s.

The new building would be on Platform 1, on the south side of the station, beneath one of the original glazed canopies. Access would be from the adjoining bus station.

The lease of the current ticket office building in Station Plaza expires in December, and the rail companies hope to open the new facilities in November, if Bradford Council approves the scheme.

Owen Ellis said there were currently no adequate heated passenger waiting rooms, the existing entrance canopy was in need of refurbishment, and the presently rented ticket office was hidden away.

There has also been a problem with droppings from roosting pigeons.

The proposed building has been designed to complement the nearby M&S Simply Food store, with glazed sliding entrance doors.

The scheme follows the redevelopment of ticket offices of Menston and Guiseley stations around a decade ago, and the refurbishment of Ilkley’s platform canopies in recent years.

Separate planning applications are expected to be made for station-wide CCTV and new signage.