Aviemore railway station (original) (raw)

Railway station in Highland, Scotland

AviemoreScottish Gaelic: An Aghaidh Mhòr[1]National Rail
Aviemore railway station in 2018
General information
Location Aviemore, HighlandScotland
Coordinates 57°11′19″N 3°49′44″W / 57.1886°N 3.8288°W / 57.1886; -3.8288
Grid reference NH895123
Owned by Network Rail
Managed by ScotRail
Platforms 3 (2 National Rail, 1 Strathspey Railway)
Other information
Station code AVM[2]
History
Original company Inverness & Perth Junction Railway
Pre-grouping Highland Railway
Post-grouping LMS
Key dates
3 August 1863 Station opened[3]
Passengers
2019/20 Decrease 0.133 million
Interchange Increase 177
2020/21 Decrease 25,492
Interchange Decrease 8
2021/22 Increase 92,240
Interchange Increase 147
2022/23 Increase 0.112 million
Interchange Decrease 69
2023/24 Increase 0.130 million
Interchange Increase 79
Listed Building – Category A
Designated 18 August 1986
Reference no. LB257[4]
NotesPassenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Aviemore railway station serves the town and tourist resort of Aviemore in the Highlands of Scotland. The station, which is owned by Network Rail (NR) and managed by ScotRail, is on the Highland Main Line, 83 miles 31 chains (134.2 kilometres) from Perth, between Kingussie and Carrbridge, and is also the southern terminus of the Strathspey preserved railway.[5]

Strathspey railway services have operated from this station since 1998.

The station was opened by the Inverness & Perth Junction Railway (I&PJR) on 3 August 1863,[3] to designs by the engineer William Roberts,[6] when the "direct" line to Inverness via Slochd was built,[7] making Aviemore an important junction.

The original I&PJR line to Forres fell victim to the Beeching cuts, closing to passengers in October 1965.[8]

In 1998 the station was restored and refurbished, and the Strathspey Railway was allowed to use the island platform.[9] Following the moving of services, the Strathspey Railway closed their Aviemore (Speyside) railway station.

The new building on the northbound platform of the main line comprises a ticket hall, booking office and shop, and the three original buildings are waiting rooms (with historical displays), staff offices, and toilets. Parking is on the station's west side, and passenger access to the Strathspey part of the station is via a foot-crossing across the junction spur. This foot crossing also provides disabled access to platform 2.[10] As there are no ticket machines, if the ticket office is closed, passengers must buy one in advance.

The station has a passing loop 40 chains (800 m) long, flanked by two platforms. Platform 1 on the down (northbound) line can accommodate trains having fourteen coaches, whereas platform 2 on the up (southbound) line can hold fifteen.[11] The junction between the Strathspey Railway and Network Rail lies to the south of the station and was controlled from the station signal box, which also controlled a large portion of the main line either side of here (from Kingussie all the way to Culloden Moor since 1979) as well as the immediate station area.[12] The station was resignalled and the loop extended in 2019, which also saw the signal box closed with control transferring to Inverness.[13]

Passenger Volume at Aviemore[14]

| | 2002–03 | 2004–05 | 2005–06 | 2006–07 | 2007–08 | 2008–09 | 2009–10 | 2010–11 | 2011–12 | 2012–13 | 2013–14 | 2014–15 | 2015–16 | 2016–17 | 2017–18 | 2018–19 | 2019–20 | 2020–21 | 2021–22 | 2022–23 | | | ----------------- | ---------------------------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | | Entries and exits | 70,272 | 80,977 | 91,456 | 101,294 | 115,431 | 121,090 | 124,972 | 132,336 | 132,052 | 136,456 | 141,311 | 150,724 | 152,082 | 145,200 | 147,964 | 138,490 | 132,618 | 25,492 | 92,240 | 112,090 | | Interchanges | –[nb 1] | 36 | 58 | 45 | 113 | 86 | 72 | 72 | 14 | 59 | 82 | 37 | 56 | 50 | 44 | 52 | 177 | 8 | 147 | 69 |

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services are provided by ScotRail, Caledonian Sleeper, and London North Eastern Railway on the Highland Main Line, and Strathspey Railway on the former Inverness & Perth Junction Railway to Boat of Garten and Broomhill.

In the May 2022 timetable, there are five trains each weekday to Edinburgh Waverley (including the Highland Chieftain to London King's Cross) and seven to Glasgow Queen Street southbound, plus the overnight sleeper to London Euston (the latter does not run southbound on Saturday nights or northbound on Sundays). Northbound there are eleven departures to Inverness.

On Sundays there are five trains to Edinburgh (including the King's Cross service) and two to Glasgow, along with seven to Inverness, two of which extend to Elgin.[15]

| Preceding station | National Rail National Rail | Following station | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Kingussie | | ScotRailHighland Main Line | | Carrbridge orInverness | | Kingussie | | London North Eastern RailwayEast Coast Main Line | | Carrbridge orInverness | | Kingussie | | Caledonian SleeperHighland Caledonian Sleeper | | Carrbridge orInverness | | | Heritage Railways Heritage railways | | | | | | Terminus | | Strathspey Railway | | Boat of Garten | | | Historical railways | | | | | | KincraigLine open; station closed | | Highland RailwayLeft arrow Inverness & Perth Junction Railway Right arrow | | Boat of GartenLine and station open | | | Highland RailwayInverness and Aviemore Direct Railway Right arrow | | CarrbridgeLine and station open | | |

Accidents and incidents

[edit]

On 29 September 2023, 60103 Flying Scotsman collided with stationary carriages at 6:05pm. Two people were injured.[16][17]

In the future,[_when?_] this station will be one of those to benefit from a package of timetable enhancements introduced by Transport Scotland and Scotrail. The current Perth to Inverness timetable will increase to hourly each way, with trains south of there running on alternate hours to Edinburgh and Glasgow. Journey times will be reduced by 10 minutes to both cities.[18] As of May 2022, this has still not taken place.[15]

  1. ^ No data available.

  2. ^ Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.

  3. ^ Deaves, Phil. "Railway Codes". railwaycodes.org.uk. Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2022.

  4. ^ a b Quick 2022, p. 60.

  5. ^ "AVIEMORE RAILWAY STATION WITH ISLAND PLATFORM, FOOTBRIDGE AND FENCING". Historic Scotland. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 3 March 2019.

  6. ^ Bridge, Mike, ed. (2017). TRACKatlas of Mainland Britain: A Comprehensive Geographic Atlas Showing the Rail Network of Great Britain (3rd ed.). Sheffield: Platform 5 Publishing Ltd. p. 94. ISBN 978-1909431-26-3.

  7. ^ The Buildings of Scotland, Highland and Islands. John Gifford. Yale University Press. 1992. ISBN 0-300-09625-9

  8. ^ Butt (1995), page 21

  9. ^ "Railway History – The Dava Way". davaway.org.uk. Retrieved 27 April 2023.

  10. ^ "Aviemore station reopens after £2.2m restoration". RAIL, No. 333. EMAP Apex Publications. 17–30 June 1998. p. 10.

  11. ^ "National Rail Enquiries -". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2022.

  12. ^ Brailsford 2017, map 19D.

  13. ^ Jessop, R. "Scottish Signal Boxes". Ronrail. Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2013.

  14. ^ Scotrail. "Highland Mainline Journey Time Improvements Phase 2" (PDF). p. 5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 September 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2022.

  15. ^ "Estimates of station usage | ORR Data Portal". dataportal.orr.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 2 February 2024. Retrieved 24 December 2023.

  16. ^ a b eNRT May 2022 Edition, Table 213

  17. ^ "Injuries in Scotland rail crash, Flying Scotsman involved". 29 September 2023. Archived from the original on 2 November 2023. Retrieved 6 November 2023.

  18. ^ "Flying Scotsman crash: Two people taken to hospital after collision in Scotland". Sky News. 30 September 2023.

  19. ^ "Transport Scotland". Archived from the original on 20 August 2016.