Montrose railway station

History

The town of Montrose had initially been served by a short branch line from the Aberdeen Railway at Dubton Junction, which ran to a modest terminus close to the centre of the town and opened in 1848.

The current station was opened in 1883 by the North British Railway on their North British, Arbroath and Montrose Railway route linking Arbroath with the Scottish North Eastern Railway main line through Strathmore at Kinnaber Junction. This was essentially a continuation of the NBR main line from Edinburgh via the Tay Rail Bridge and allowed the company to accelerate its services between the Scottish capital and Aberdeen by an hour. Though the line received parliamentary approval in 1871, it wasn't until 1881 that the line was opened for goods traffic, progress having been delayed by the need to rebuild the iron South Esk viaduct south of the station. The original had been built to the design of Sir Thomas Bouch, which was considered suspect after the Tay Bridge Disaster of 1879 - upon testing under heavy loads, several of the piers failed and so it had to be replaced. Passenger traffic subsequently began on the line on 1 May 1883.

To the north of the station a chord line was laid in by the NBR to give access to the Montrose and Bervie Railway at Broomfield Junction; this 13 mile branch had been opened in 1865 and initially worked by the Scottish North Eastern Railway (whose Montrose East station it originally shared) but taken over by the NBR in 1881 when the main NBA&MR was opened. After a period of joint operation by both companies, the NBR worked all services from 1899 until the 1923 Grouping, when the London and North Eastern Railway took over. Passenger services were subsequently withdrawn by British Railways in 1951, though freight traffic continued until 1966. From 30 April 1934, services from the Dubton branch also operated to and from here with the closure of the former Caledonian terminus to passenger traffic. Passenger traffic on this route ended in August 1952, with complete closure following in 1963.

The section of line across the viaduct and on to Usan is the only single track section on the entire line between Edinburgh & Aberdeen - though the rest of the route was doubled by the NBR in the years after opening, the cost of widening or rebuilding the viaduct to accommodate double track was deemed prohibitive and so it remained single. Until recently, the section was worked by signal boxes at each end (Usan and Montrose South) using tokenless block regulations, but a 2010 resignalling scheme saw both boxes closed and control transferred to the former Montrose North box - this now supervises the entire area including the single line over the viaduct. The work also made the southbound platform at the station bi-directional.

Services

The station receives regular calls by Abellio ScotRail trains on both the Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley to Aberdeen routes throughout the week. Certain Aberdeen trains are extended to either Dyce (for Aberdeen Airport) or Inverurie.

There are also three through trains Virgin Trains East Coast to and from London Kings Cross and one to/from Leeds (Mon-Sat only) via the East Coast Main Line that call, along with a single through train to/from Penzance via Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham New Street, Bristol Temple Meads and Exeter St Davids operated by CrossCountry. The overnight Caledonian Sleeper service to/from London Euston also stops here (except on Saturday nights/Sunday mornings).

From 2018, a new "Aberdeen Crossrail" service will be introduced from the station, running northbound to Inverurie every hour and serving all intermediate stops either side of Aberdeen. This will also allow the current Aberdeen to Glasgow & Edinburgh services to be accelerated by removing some of their existing calls north of Dundee and forms part of an extensive timetable improvement package backed by Transport Scotland.