Place Dunbar Station code DUN 2011/12 0.360 million Number of platforms 1 Original company North British Railway | Grid reference NT680784 Managed by Abellio ScotRail 2012/13 0.374 million | |
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Address Dunbar EH42 1JX, United Kingdom Similar Drem railway station, North Berwick railway st, Longniddry railway station, Dunbar Town House M, Coastal Communities Museum | ||
Dunbar railway station 04 5 2015
Dunbar railway station serves the town of Dunbar in East Lothian, Scotland. It is located on the East Coast Main Line and is a single platform station. The platform is located on a loop adjacent to the main through lines. It is halfway between Edinburgh Waverley and Berwick-upon-Tweed with a distance of about 28 miles (45 km). The line on which the platform is located is bi-directional (meaning that trains travelling to/from London or Edinburgh Waverley take it in turns to use the station if they are scheduled to stop there) and along with Syston station in Leicester it is a rare example of a single platformed main line railway station used on a major route.
Contents
History
The station, which was first opened by the North British Railway in June 1846, used to have two platforms and an overall roof. Both features no longer exist - the northbound platform loop line was taken out of use and lifted in the early 1970s, whilst the platform itself and the station roof were both removed during the modernisation and electrification by British Rail of the northern end of the East Coast Main Line between 1989 and 1991.
For approximately five months in 1979, this was the terminal station for a shuttle service to Edinburgh Waverley. The shuttle service was provided after the East Coast Main Line was blocked due to the collapse of Penmanshiel Tunnel. Buses linked Dunbar with Berwick-upon-Tweed, from where rail services to London King's Cross resumed.
Accidents and incidents
Facilities
The station is fully staffed, with the ticket office open throughout the week (Monday - Friday 05:55 - 21:30, Saturday 06:25 - 20:40 and Sunday 11:15 - 21:30). Self-service ticket machines are also provided for use outside these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. There are toilets, a payphone and vending machines on the concourse. Train running information is provided by automated announcements, digital CIS displays, a customer help point and timetable posters. Level access is available from the entrance and concourse to the platform.
Infrastructure operator Network Rail and East Lothian council have engaged in discussions to reinstate a second platform here in the future (potentially by 2019). This would be located on the main lines to the south of the present station and would need a new bridge constructing to link it to the existing station building and platform.
Services
The station is served by Abellio ScotRail, CrossCountry and Virgin Trains East Coast. It is currently managed by Abellio ScotRail.
The station is served mainly by CrossCountry trains on the Plymouth to Edinburgh route with projections to/from Dundee (2 Services Monday-Saturday and 1 on Sundays), Aberdeen (1 service per day) or Glasgow Central (0700 service weekdays) in the north and Penzance (1 service per day Monday-Saturday with an occasional Sunday) in the south. These trains serve Dunbar at roughly two-hourly intervals throughout the day. Some Virgin Trains East Coast services between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley call at Dunbar.
ScotRail also provides some Monday to Saturday services to Edinburgh. The weekday ScotRail services were introduced in the May 2010 timetable (marking the first time in 20 years since Scottish local services used Dunbar). A year later in May 2011, all ScotRail services between Dunbar and Edinburgh introduced a one intermediate stop at Musselburgh to allow the connection of Dunbar students to Queen Margaret University. From the beginning of the December 2011 timetable, a late Saturday night service to Dunbar from Edinburgh was introduced. The Saturday daytime services were introduced in the December 2012 timetable. The ScotRail services enhance Dunbar every two hours during the day making the daytime services hourly on Mondays-Saturdays. ScotRail does not serve Dunbar on Sundays. Train services on Sundays are two hourly throughout the day except for the evenings where these services are hourly until mid/late evening.