Elgin railway station

Elgin
Elgin railway station, looking towards Inverness
Location
Place	Elgin
Local authority	Moray
Coordinates	57°38′34″N 3°18′40″W / 57.6428°N 3.3110°WCoordinates: 57°38′34″N 3°18′40″W / 57.6428°N 3.3110°W
Grid reference	NJ218621
Operations
Station code	ELG
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	0.298 million
2011/12	0.307 million
2012/13	0.322 million
2013/14	0.335 million
2014/15	0.342 million
History
10 August 1852	GNSR station opened
25 March 1858	Highland station opened
6 May 1968	GNSR station closed
1990	Highland station rebuilt
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Elgin from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Elgin railway station is a railway station serving the town of Elgin, Moray in Scotland. The station is managed by Abellio ScotRail and is on the Aberdeen to Inverness Line.

The station has two platforms linked by a footbridge, and a booking office/waiting room with a vending machine. One of the route's passing loops is located here, under the control of Elgin West signal box (which also supervises an adjacent level crossing). This signal box is now the most northerly manual box still in operation on the UK railway network (all those to the north of Inverness having been closed back in the 1980s when the station area was resignalled and RETB working introduced on the Kyle & Far North lines).^[1]

History

Elgin was formerly served by two stations, one owned by the Highland Railway (first opened by the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway and known as Elgin West) and one by the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR), which was first opened by the Morayshire Railway. The latter's lines to Lossiemouth and Craigellachie (where it joined the Strathspey Railway (GNoSR)) were subsequently joined by the GNSR Morayshire Coast line in 1886/7. All three of the GNSR routes were closed in the 1960s as a result of the Beeching Axe, with the Lossiemouth branch the first to go in April 1964 and the other two routes following in May 1968.^[2]

Both stations were located about one mile to the south of Elgin town centre, which made them inconvenient for local journeys, e.g. to Lossiemouth, and bus services soon eliminated much of the local passenger traffic - passengers would generally only use the train service if they were connecting to long-distance trains. The stations were less than 500 metres apart and linked by a footpath.

The present station, formerly the West (ex-Highland) station, opened on 25 March 1858^[3] was retained and was rebuilt in a modern style by British Rail in 1990.

The GNSR station (known as Elgin East), opened on 10 August 1852, was closed with the end of services on the coast & Craigellachie lines on 6 May 1968.^[3] The GNSR station building is still used as office accommodation and stands on the site of the original Morayshire Railway station. A sizeable goods yard is still in operation on this site.

Services

The basic service at the station is (roughly) two-hourly in each direction (with peak extras) - west to Inverness and east to Aberdeen, though a small number of trains also start/terminate here from the Inverness direction. The first eastbound train each weekday continues through to Dundee and Edinburgh Waverley, with a balancing service in the opposite direction in the late evening. A single train per day terminates at Elgin having come from Kyle of Lochalsh on the west coast via Inverness.

On Sundays, there are five trains each way to the main termini (one of which runs through to Glasgow Queen Street via Aberdeen) and two from Glasgow via Inverness that terminate here.^[4]

Transport Scotland and Scotrail have plans to improve service levels to Forres, Nairn & Inverness (to an base hourly frequency) from 2018.^[5]

Infrastructure Improvements

As well as the aforementioned timetable improvements, Transport Scotland agreed in 2014 to fund a £170 million infrastructure upgrade project for the line. This will see signalling improvements and platforms extensions here, along with a relocated station & loop at Forres, double tracking from Aberdeen to Inverurie and two reopened stations at Dalcross and Kintore.^[6]

References

Notes

1. Railscot - Elgin West signal box www.railbrit.co.uk; Retrieved 2013-12-22
2. Railscot: Chronology - Morayshire Railway www.railbrit.co.uk; Retrieved 2013-12-22
3. Butt (1995). Page 90.
4. GB National Rail Timetable May 2016 Edition, Table 240
5. "‘Rail revolution’ means 200 more services and 20,000 more seats for Scots passengers"Transport Scotland press release 15 March 2016; Retrieved 19 August 2016
6. "Millions to be spent on rail line upgrade" Paterson, Laura, The Press and Journal news article 29 March 2014; Retrieved 19 August 2016

Sources

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.

External links

• Elgin railway station video
• Railscot - Elgin West
• Photos of the disused station & yard at Elgin East (Railscot)