Langwathby railway station lies on the south-eastern edge of the village, approximately 234½ rail miles from London St. Pancras and 19¾ miles from Carlisle.
A station to serve the village was formally proposed by Messrs Crossley, Allport & Kirtley in October 1872 and a set of standard designs for the key buildings were produced by Mr. J. H. Saunders (the Midland Railway Company's Architect) in 1873.
The contract to construct the station facilities was awarded to George Black of Carlisle in mid July 1874 and building work began in 1875.
The exterior walls of the booking office, goods shed, station master's house and workers' cottages were constructed from red sandstone. However, the waiting shelter on the 'up' platform was unusual in that it had timber walls.
The station opened for both goods and passenger traffic on 1st May 1876 and the first Station Master was Joseph Shaw. For the first five months, the station was known as Long Wathby, but the name was altered to Langwathby on 1st October 1876.
The station was closed for goods traffic on 6th July 1964 and for passenger traffic on 4th May 1970. However, when the weekend Dalesrail services were introduced on 1st May 1976, the station reopened as an unstaffed halt. The Dalesrail services were repeated every summer for a decade then, on 29th September 1986, a new year-round daily passenger service was introduced.
Langwathby station is now served by most of the trains operating Northern's Leeds-Settle-Carlisle service.
