Place Laurencekirk Station code LAU DfT category F1 Number of platforms 2 Original company Aberdeen Railway | Grid reference NO717718 Managed by Abellio ScotRail 2011/12 86,142 | |
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Address Laurencekirk AB30 1BE, United Kingdom Similar Montrose railway station, Dyce railway station, St Cyrus National Nature R, Montrose Air Station Heritage, Stonehaven railway station | ||
Laurencekirk railway station is a railway station serving the communities of Laurencekirk and The Mearns in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The station was reopened on 18 May 2009 at a cost of £3 million.
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History
The station was opened on 1 November 1849 by the Aberdeen Railway, which ran from Aberdeen in the north to Guthrie (just outside Arbroath) to the south. The line joined the North British, Arbroath and Montrose Railway north of Montrose at Kinnaber Junction and Arbroath and Forfar Railway at the triangular junctions at Friockheim and Guthrie.
Closure
The station was closed in September 1967 by British Railways, at a time when they were looking to cut costs across their network, this despite the line on which the station stands being a busy main-line with frequent, direct services to London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and a number of major destinations in England.
Re-opening
The residents of Laurencekirk, many of whom now commute to Aberdeen and Dyce had successfully campaigned for the station to be reopened – the official announcement being made during December 2006 that the station would open in December 2007, to be funded by Transport Scotland and the Regional Transport Partnership Nestrans. The announcement of December 2007 for the re-commencement of services to and from Laurencekirk was ultimately overly ambitious and it was announced in early 2008 that the station would be finished and ready for the December 2008 timetable change. However, in a New Release from Transport Scotland, the opening date was given at Spring 2009. The station was reopened by the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure & Climate Change, Stewart Stevenson on 18th May 2009.
The station building, which had fallen into poor overall condition was refurbished during Spring 2008, and a new car park with 70 parking spaces was built by Aberdeenshire Council and Nestrans, across the railway line from the station building, together with a small number of disabled parking spaces next to the station building. First ScotRail made provisional plans for 19 trains to serve the station each day, made up of 10 northbound services and 9 southbound services, with southbound services serving both Edinburgh and Glasgow. ScotRail will also be responsible for gritting and snowclearing at the station. On the first anniversary of the reopening of the station, it was revealed that almost double the expected number of passengers had used it – 64,000 people as opposed to a projection of 36,000. By 2014/15, passenger numbers exceeded 112,000.
Future Improvements
Service frequencies are to be improved here from 2018 as part of a timetable recast funded by Transport Scotland. A new "Aberdeen Crossrail" commuter service is to be introduced between Montrose and Inverurie, which will call here and the other intermediate stations en-route once per hour in each direction.