Place Nairn Station code NRN 2011/12 0.112 million Opened 1855 | Grid reference NH881560 Managed by Abellio ScotRail 2012/13 0.112 million Number of platforms 2 | |
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Address Nairn IV12 4QP, United Kingdom Similar Forres railway station, Inverness railway station, Invergordon railway station, Nairn Golf Club, Alness railway station | ||
Nairn railway station is a railway station serving the town of Nairn in Scotland. The station is managed by Abellio ScotRail and is on the Aberdeen to Inverness Line. The station appeared as 'Inverness' in the 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
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History
The station was first opened in 1855 by the Inverness and Nairn Railway. In 1857, the line was extended eastwards to Dalvey. The route from Aberdeen to Inverness was merged into one company, the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway, in 1861. Many of the local stations either side of here succumbed to the Beeching Axe between 1965 & 1968, though Nairn was one of those that survived the cutbacks.
The station was notable for being the last working example of Highland Railway signalling principles, where a signal box was provided at each end to work the signals & points whilst the key token instruments for working the single line were located in the main building. The distance between the boxes was such that a bicycle was officially provided by BR (and later Railtrack) for the signaller to use. The practice came to an end in April 2000, when the station was resignalled with colour lights and control shifted to a panel in the station building - as a result, most passenger services use the northern (former eastbound) platform in both directions (the southern one is now only used by Aberdeen-bound services if two trains are scheduled to pass here).
Services
There is approximately one service per two hours in each direction, with some additional trains at weekday peak-times. The first morning eastbound service runs to Dundee and Edinburgh Waverley, whilst the last evening service in the opposite direction comes from there; certain peak hour trains only run to/from Elgin, including one through working from Kyle of Lochalsh.
On Sundays, there are five trains each way between Aberdeen & Inverness, plus a pair of services from the latter that run only as far as Elgin.
Transport Scotland and Scotrail intend to improve the service frequencies from here to Elgin & Inverness to hourly from 2018.