Dundee railway station

History

The station is the rebuilt Dundee Tay Bridge railway station, which had been built by the North British Railway in 1878 as part of the Tay Rail Bridge project. Until the 1960s, other stations in Dundee included Dundee West, the Caledonian Railway station for Perth, and Dundee East station on the Dundee and Arbroath Joint Railway. It is located in cutting at the south end of Camperdown tunnel, which passes beneath the town's former docks (now filled in) and required permanent pumping to keep dry. The station is consequently sited below sea level.

Today, the only other remaining station within Dundee City boundaries is Broughty Ferry. Both Balmossie and Invergowrie stations are located very close to the cites boundaries, but lie in Angus and Perth and Kinross.

As part of the redevelopment of Dundee city centre in the 1960s the original public entrance of Dundee Tay Bridge station was demolished to accommodate the new Tay Road Bridge offramps, with a new smaller structure replacing it. A footbridge connected the new station building to the city's Union Street to allow pedestrians to cross the busy inner ring road safely. In 2005, the footbridge was demolished in two phases as part of a regeneration project called the Dundee Central Waterfront Development Plan. This project, which has included removal of the 1970s public entrance to the station, will attempt to restructure the approach roads to the Tay Road Bridge and create a new civic space, as well as making way for the new railway station.

Proposed developments

There is to be a new multimillion-pound railway station built, replacing the now partially demolished old station. While the new station is under construction, a temporary entrance on Riverside Drive is in use. The Dundee Waterfront project is due to end in 2031. Included in the plans is a major revamp to the Tay Road Bridge; other buildings include the multimillion-pound V&A Dundee and the redevelopment of the former Tay Hotel into a Malmaison.

The new station building will be built over the site of the demolished old station at a cost of 22 million pounds. It will include a five-story curved building that will house the new station entrance, concourse and access points on the first and underground floors as well as a 120-room Sleeperz Hotel occupying the upper floors. Construction is due to begin by the first quarter of 2015, with completion planned for 2018 before the opening of the new V&A Dundee.

Services

There are direct connections to London King's Cross, plus CrossCountry Trains along the Cross Country Route to Penzance via Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Birmingham New Street, Bristol Temple Meads, Exeter St Davids and Plymouth. More frequent services run to Glasgow Queen Street, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

For a period of time, Dundee was the starting station of the longest direct rail journey in Britain - the 06:43 Virgin CrossCountry service to Penzance, which took just over 12 hours to complete. The station was the terminus of the reverse of this journey, the 08:30 CrossCountry service from Penzance which arrived at Dundee at 20:25. As of 14 December 2008, the longest through journey is now the 08:20 from Aberdeen to Penzance, arriving at Penzance at 21:50, 13.5 hours later. This still operates in the May 2016 timetable, departing from here at 09:32.

Services in 2016:

Virgin Trains East Coast:

3 trains per day to London Kings Cross from Aberdeen via Edinburgh, Newcastle and York. 3 trains per day to Aberdeen from London Kings Cross via Arbroath, Montrose and Stonehaven. 1 train per day to Leeds from Aberdeen via Kirkcaldy. 1 train per day to Aberdeen from Leeds via Arbroath, Montrose and Stonehaven.

CrossCountry Trains:

1 train per day from Aberdeen to Penzance 1 trains per day to Plymouth starting here (extends to Newquay on summer Saturdays only) 1 train per day from Plymouth to Aberdeen 1 train per day from Plymouth terminating here (On Sundays there is a train to Southampton Central)

Caledonian Sleeper:

1 train per day to London Euston from Aberdeen via Edinburgh*, Preston and Crewe. 1 train per day to Aberdeen from London Euston via Crewe, Preston and Edinburgh*.

Scotrail:

1 train per hour to Edinburgh from Aberdeen running via Leuchars, generally running fast, stopping only at Leuchars and Haymarket 1 train per hour to Edinburgh starting here via Leuchars, Kirkcaldy, Inverkeithing and Haymarket 1 train per hour to Glasgow Queen Street via Perth and Stirling. 2 trains per hour to Aberdeen via Arbroath, Montrose and Stonehaven. 1 train per hour from Edinburgh via Haymarket, Inverkeithing, Kirkcaldy and Leuchars terminating here

Future Service Improvements

Transport Scotland and Scotrail plan to improve services here from 2018 as part of a major timetable re-cast across Scotland. This will see an hourly regional service to Perth & Glasgow being introduced (along similar lines to that already in operation to Edinburgh) serving the primary intermediate stations en-route, with the existing Glasgow - Aberdeen becoming a limited stop express. A regular local stopping service to Broughty Ferry, Monifieith, Carnoustie & Arbroath is also to be reintroduced, almost 30 years after its predecessor was withdrawn by British Rail. Refurbished Intercity 125 sets will replace the existing DMU stock on Aberdeen to Glasgow & Edinburgh routes and a number of these will be extended to/from Dyce & Inverness.

Station facilities

There is also a taxi stand immediately outside of the station building, and the main bus interchange is a five-minute walk from the station in the city centre.

There is a "Travel Office" for information and ticket purchasing, as well as an automatic ticket machine outside the office. The office often closes well before the last trains have departed.

There is also a small branch of bookshop/confectioner WHSmith and a bar and café after the automatic ticket gates on the concourse. The café, a branch of Pumpkin, mainly serves cold food such as sandwiches, and hot and cold drinks. Like the ticket office, the shop and café do not open in the late evening.