The first York railway station was a temporary building on Queen Street outside the walls of the city, opened in 1839 by the York & North Midland Railway. It was the terminus of the original trunk route for trains to London, via Derby and Birmingham.

A second station, inside the walls, was built by G.T. Andrews in 1840 and opened on 4 January 1841. Alongside the departure platform he built a two storey Italianate structure in ashlar sandstone with Tuscan columns. On the first floor was the board room. Opposite and on the arrival platform he built a brick refreshment room and offices, which received a second floor in 1850.

York lay where two railway companies met, the Great North of England, and the York & North Midland, and it was the influence of George Hudson, the railway entrepreneur and a citizen of the city, which led to the modestly sized city of York becoming such an important railway hub.

In 1853 a three storey hotel was opened across the end of the lines, adjoining the two earlier buildings. This was the first station hotel in the world. All three buildings are listed Grade II*.

The present station opened in 1877. It was designed by Thomas Prosser and the railway company's engineer T.E. Harrison, the purpose being to create a through station instead of the original terminus. Its modest nine arch porte cochere stands before its principal glory which is the three vast curved wrought-iron spans which compose the train-shed. Like that at Newcastle (seeNewcastle Station entry) it is enormously impressive. It is listed Grade II*.

In 1878 a new railway hotel was opened designed by Thomas Prosser and William Peachey. The Royal York is massively constructed in yellow brick and is a Grade II listed building.

The next listed building in this railway complex is the 1906 North Eastern Railway headquarters building, built by William Bell. It consists of four storeys and two attic tiers in red brick with stone facings, with a baroque entrance. Inside is equally impressive and it contained the new boardroom for the railway company. It stands as amonument to a proud and profitable railway. It too is listed Grade II*.

A further Grade II* listed structure in this complex is the North Eastern Railway Lutyens War Memorial of 1923. It recorded the death of 2,236 railway employees in World War I.

York's railway pre-eminence has been augmented since 1975 by the conversion of a museum inaugurated by the North Eastern Railway into the National Railway Museum in a collection of railway buildings slightly outside the main complex. This has become a major attraction in the city.