Aviemore railway station

History

The line was opened by the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway (I&PJR) in 1863, subsequently becoming part of the Highland Railway.

The current station was opened in 1898, to designs by the architect William Roberts when the "direct" line to Inverness via Slochd was built, making Aviemore an important junction and replacing the original 1863 building. William Roberts also provided an engine shed to the north of the station in 1896.

It became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway after the Grouping of 1923, then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

The original I&PJR line to Forres fell victim to the Beeching Axe, closing to passengers in October 1965.

When Sectorisation was introduced by British Rail in the 1980s, the station was served by Scotrail until the Privatisation of British Rail.

In 1998 the station was restored and refurbished, and the Strathspey Railway was finally allowed to use the island platform. All three buildings on the island platform were restored and brought back into use, having been derelict for many years, and a fourth was built from scratch. The new building comprises a ticket hall, booking office and shop, and the three original buildings are waiting rooms (with historical displays), staff offices, and toilets. Parking, reached from the Rothiemurchus road in the south of the village, is on the east side of the station, 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. This is the second biggest railway station in Highland (Council area), after Inverness.

Following the moving of services, the Strathspey Railway subsequently closed their Aviemore (Speyside) railway station. The platform remains, as fears over asbestos contamination have stalled it's removal. The original footbridge also still stands, but is unsafe.

Description

Road access to the NR station building is from Grampian Road, to the west of the line. A canopied island platform, connected to the station building by a footbridge, lies beyond the two main-line tracks, and the further (eastern) platform face of this island is used by Strathspey trains. The junction between the Strathspey Railway and Network Rail lies to the south of the station and is controlled from the station signal box, which also controls 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.

Services

Services are provided by Abellio ScotRail, Caledonian Sleeper, and Virgin Trains East Coast on the Highland Main Line and Strathspey Railway on the former Inverness and Perth Junction Railway to Boat of Garten and Broomhill.

In the May 2016 timetable, there are seven trains each weekday to Edinburgh Waverley (including the "Highland Chieftain" to London Kings Cross) and four to Glasgow Queen Street southbound, plus the overnight sleeper to London Euston (the latter doesn't run southbound on Saturday nights & northbound on Sundays). Northbound there are twelve departures to Inverness.

On Sundays there are five trains to Edinburgh (including the Kings Cross service) and two to Glasgow, along with seven to Inverness.

From 2018, 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 & Glasgow. Journey times will also be reduced by 10 minutes to both cities.