Alloa railway station

History

The original Alloa station was opened by the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway on 28 August 1850 when the line was opened. Passengers for Stirling were transported via ferry along the River Forth to Stirling. This situation continued until the line to Stirling was opened on 1 July 1852, however the terminus was to the north of the Forth. On 1 July 1853, the bridge across the Forth was opened and the line extended to the Scottish Central Railway station. Subsequent links were added southwards to Larbert via the Alloa Railway in 1889 and northwards to Tillicoultry from 1851, where an end-on junction with the Devon Valley Railway was made some years later. The network was finally completed in 1906 with the opening of a second line to Dunfermline via Kincardine and Longannet along the northern bank of the Forth estuary. This carried a passenger service until July 1930.

As built, the station consisted of a wide island platform, with two inset bays at its west end used by trains southwards to Larbert and Grangemouth and on the Alva branch line.

As the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway was part of the North British Railway, the station was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The station then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. It was closed by the British Railways Board in 1968.

Closure

During the mid-1960s the lines in West Fife around Alloa were progressively closed. The Devon Valley Railway passenger service was the first to go in June 1964 (with total closure following in 1973, with the ending of coal-mining at Dollar), whilst the line across the swing bridge to Larbert followed in January 1968. The main S&DR line via Cambus through Alloa and on to Dumfermline Upper was then closed on 7 October 1968.

Freight services continued until 1970, though the nearby Alloa marshalling yard to the west remained open until 1988 (latterly used only by the trip freights to the yeast factory at Menstrie). The remainder of the original S&DR through the station towards the east continued in use for colliery traffic until 1979 (this has since been lifted) and the Kincardine branch until 1980. This latter route was left derelict but intact for some years and has since been reopened, along with the station (see below).

Following the full closure of Alloa station, a leisure centre was built on the site, though a narrowed formation and a single track was kept for freight services.

Re-opening

In 2008, the railway reopened, with a new Alloa station situated to the east of its predecessor, due to the earlier construction of the leisure centre. A passenger-operated self-service ticket machine was installed in July 2008; the illustrated ticket was issued at Stirling station.

Under Scottish Executive funding, the line between Stirling and Alloa was reopened to both passenger and freight traffic, with a key benefit being a reduction in congestion on the Forth Railway Bridge. Construction work started in 2005, with track laying commencing at the end of September 2006. It was originally projected that the station would reopen to passenger traffic in the Summer of 2007 but this date was then put back to allow for the upgrading of a level crossing.

The official opening took place on Thursday, 15 May 2008.

Passenger use of the new railway station has greatly exceeded forecasts and since re-opening the service has been improved by increasing evening and Sunday frequencies from two-hourly to hourly and by adding the peak hour service to Edinburgh in 2009. In its first year the station was used by 400,000 passengers, against a forecast of 155,000.

Facilities

The station has a nearby car park with 64 spaces but is not permanently staffed. The branch line from Stirling is due to be electrified by 2018, which will allow for journey time improvements and new EMU rolling stock to be introduced.

Services

The current service gives an hourly train to Stirling and Glasgow seven days a week, with an additional peak hour commuter service to Edinburgh running six days a week. The journey time to Stirling is 12–14 minutes. Services are usually operated by a Class 170 or a Class 158.